> > Perhaps we are talking at cross-purposes here. Doug, Steve, Joan >> Robinson, etc. are saying that under capitalism it's better to be >> employed than unemployed; Ali, Paul, etc. are saying that capitalism >> on the periphery is very much worse than other modes of production & >> especially so when compared to formerly existing socialism. >> -- > >To be "unemployed" is to be within capital's orbit (ie it's a distinction >that applies to populations constructed statistically by nation-states and >super-national bodies.) Robinson is saying that being outside of that orbit >is far worse than being in it. That is, even unemployment within the orbit >of capital is better than whatever states of work life are available in >other modes of production, given the encroachment of capital on those >worlds. (As I recall, she is referring to Latin American "development" >during the Cold War.) > >In that sense, I think Robinson would disagree with Ali, Paul etc., and >probably argue that capital is a better mode of production even in its >peripheral guises, given the misery entailed in being outside capitalist >modernization when the forces supporting that modernization are at work. You >might argue that Doug misapplied Robinson's idea, but he did so not to give >sanction to capital, but to reinforce that the context in which one is >"outside" of capital's circuits is one in which capital's existence >next-door makes life worse than if there were no encroaching, competing >social forces for capitalist modernization. You also might argue, pace >Mark's comments, that Afghanistan and its shadow economies are perfectly >good examples of Robinson's idea. > >Christian
As I wrote in another post, I think that capitalism at present doesn't modernize the periphery; if anything, it tends to de-modernize, producing an increasing number of dissolved nations, failed/failing states, criminalized transnational networks of production/distribution/consumption, & reactionary ideologies (including fundamentalist Islamism but far from limited to it) to go with them, all of which have been barely managed by the Empire's police actions, UN protectorates, & the like. -- Yoshie * Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Anti-War Organizing in Columbus Covered by the Media: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/media.html>
