interview with Istvan Meszaros

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Well, he might well be right on this one.  But if so, why give capitalism
>more power than it deserves by casting it as some natural progression,
>incipiently rearing its ugly head at every historical turn?  Seems like
>those arguments play into the hands of those ubiquitous neoliberal
>ideologues with their end-of-history teleologies.  I don't think we should
>be doing their work for them.  Capitalism (not trade, not exploitation, not
>hierarchy, but capitalism) is relatively recent and historically unique,
>based on premises and social arrangements that would have seemed utterly
>bizarre to members of the overwhelming majority of societies that have
>existed across time and space.
>
>Maureen

I agree with Maureen and Stephen E Philion -- not only about the
interpretation of history but also about the political implications of
'discovering' (proto-)capitalism before it emerged.

Yoshie