interview with Istvan Meszaros

Michael Yates mikey+ at pitt.edu
Sun Sep 26 07:38:39 PDT 1999


There is an interesting interview with Istvan Meszaros in the latest issue of "Science and Society." If there are people on these lists familiar with his latest book, "Beyond Capital," (I have not read this book, though I found his book on Alienation to be very good, even brilliant in parts) I have a question. Meszaros appears to see capitalism as more or less the logical culmination of all class societies. He speaks of the capital system, of which capitalism proper is just the final end (he seems to think that the Soviet-type systems are part of this capital system though not capitalist and not able to stand up to capitalism proper). He seems to say that prior class societies such as feudalism and slavery are just rather primitive forms of the capital system, but that their logic leads ultimately to capitalism which is the most refined form of exploitation ever devised. His conclusion is that the capital system must be thoroughly rooted out if humanity is to have any chance to survive.

What do others make of Meszaros's ideas? Notions of progress and stages don't seem to enter into his theory, just the inevitability of increasingly refined and impersonal forms of exploitation until we decide to make the long struggle to end it and create an egalitarian society of associated producers.

michael yates



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