I don't see how anyone can argue with anything you have said.
One might argue that there are some 'advances' in human welfare as a result of
the advance of what democracy we have in the world and, as well, the result of
the technological innovations which can be attributed in part to capitalism.
That being said, the points you make are all valid, and I have seen some valiant
attempts on this list to address the practical, nitty-gritty issues of what to
do about it.
Do you have some suggestions to add, John? I have to admit that I don't read
all the posts on this list thoroughly and some not at all in my rush through my
mail so if you have made some practical, nitt-gritty suggestions already, please
accept my apology for not having seen them.
I am currently reading some of Anthony Giddens' work which appears to support
much of the policy direction of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. I haven't read much
of it so I don't know whether Giddens deals with the issue of corporate power
very well, but I suspect he does not. Is anyone else familiar with his work. I
would love to see some comments.
Selma Singer
John wrote:
> On 2 Jan 2001 you wrote:_
>
> I too remember reading the literature of the 1960s and 1970s and still have
> some of it on my shelves. Stuff based on Marx and Freud; Marcuse, and Erich
> Fromm. At the level of the idealist in me, there are still times when I
> wish people could transcend themselves and become something greater and more
> human than they are. But the realist, or perhaps cynic, in me doubts that
> it's likely. Nobody has to turn us into commodities. In our market driven
> society, we do it to ourselves, and willingly. Most of us don't even think
> about it anymore.
> Ed Weick
>
> I have been following this thread with interest and am astounded by the
> high level of generalised language and concepts being employed to address
> the socio-economic, political and ecological complexity which increasing
> numbers of people around the planet appear to be concerned about.
>
> Merely 'wishing' that (otherwise) rational human beings..."could transcend
> themselves and become something greater and more human than they are" is
> surely a quite scarey approach to our current dilemna, as is the conclusion
> that...."Nobody has to turn us into commodities. In our market driven
> society, we do it to ourselves, and willingly. Most of us don't even think
> about it anymore."
>
> Such assertions obfuscate, for instance, the central (and, to date at
> least, most successful) role being played by the highly-rewarded
> 'executives' of the global advertising industry who expend (waste) BILLIONS
> of dollars annually manipulating people around the world to consume a
> mind-boggling array of mass-produced commodities.
>
> But then the extant phase of the now globally-dominant Capitalist mode of
> production is characterised by the ideological hegemony facilitated by not
> only the parasitic advertising industry but the broader Capitalist media
> industry (of which it forms part), and what is euphemistically referred to
> as the (western) 'education' industry as well.
>
> With the "scientific advances/progress" in the capacity of contemporary
> nuclear/biological weapons to totally eliminate ALL life on the planet
> arousing public concern - along with rising widespread social inequality
> and ecological despoliation and destruction - the imperative for the ruling
> Capitalist and bureaucratic/managerialist classes is to ensure that they
> are able to maintain the upper hand in the 'ideological' warfare which is
> proving essential to protect and preserve such an anti-social and
> contradictory/irrational mode of social production AND RE-PRODUCTION.
>
> It is because of this reality that we have been witness, over recent years,
> to an escalation of the ideological warfare ( backed up of course in
> 'recalcitrant' states by overt and, in the case of Yugoslavia and
> Iraq, 'example' militarism) being waged from well-funded and highly
> influential right-wing/conservative 'think-tanks', 'institutes' and the
> like, from which have emanated the Thatcherite/Reganite 'strategic policy
> initiatives' and so on....('De-regulation', Re-structuring',
> ''Privatisation' etc) which continue to transform both our natural and
> social milieux. At both the ideological and everyday ' world-of-work'
> level, a central pillar of the dominant mindset/worldview driving the whole
> process has been neo-liberal economic ' theory', underlaid or supported by
> the intellectually anarchic 'paradigm' of
> post-structuralist/de-constructionist theory of public discourse.
>
> Now whilst the Marxian 'paradigm'/theory (and its Marcusian etc acolytes)
> left much both unexamined and un(der)-explained, it was nevertheless
> sufficiently compelling/efficacious as to transform the
> socio-economic/civic/political relations of millions of peoples around the
> world. Thus, we are where we are today because of the 'success' (a la
> Fukuyama) of Capitalist ideology over alternative worldviews and concrete
> modes of (social) production and distribution/exchange. But as
> social/political and ecological events AND THEIR MOUNTING COSTS continue to
> demonstrate, the historical ' victory' of Capitalism over any and all
> communitarian/socialist alternatives is likely to prove a pyrrhic one....a
> reality which even Mr Fukuyama has apparently at least partly conceded!
>
> The other contributing factor to the 'success' and dominance of the widely
> despised Capitalist system is the abject disarray of its sworn opponents, '
> the left'. Of course with many of the 'leaders' of the numerous Left
> factions ensconced in well-rewarded sinecures, from whence they continue to
> launch their attacks on those considered not to be ' true believers', how
> can the managerialist/capitalist classes not succeed?!
>
> What those of the left have thus far failed to achieve is to re-educate and
> re-unite the hundreds of millions of decent ' working class ' people around
> the globe who continue to be increasingly marginalised and alienated from
> one another including, in particular, the well-credentialled (but poorly
> educated and pretentious) members of the so-called ' middle class '.
>
> The widening gulf between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' around the world
> - including of course within the so-called ' rich countries ' - surely
> confirms the ancient wisdoms and injunctions enunciated in all of the
> mainstream Christian texts regarding the importance and nature of a 'just
> and equitable' society. Marx merely revealed the socially divisive nature
> of the Capitalist mode of production (he was actually impressed with many
> of the technological innovations and benefits deriving from within this
> particular socio-economic system), and called for a more humane and
> civil-ised society wherein each contributed according to their ability and
> received according to their need.
>
> john foster
