[lbo-talk] Why Capitalism Cannot be Tamed

[Alan Rudy]

Nope, Somebody.  CB got it right.  I was arguing that the birdiness and
tanageriness of the different species Darwin's finches is more important
than their differences.  To my mind, arguing otherwise when it comes to the
cultures of different corporations, government bureaucracies, consumer
identities (broadly defined to include most all politicized consumption) and
local communities in the advanced industrial west all-but completely rejects
Marxist analysis of the homogenizing tendencies of capitalism - however much
it simultaneously intensifies differentiation within homogenization,
Weberian interpretations of rationalization and almost 60 years of community
studies starting with Small Town in Mass Society.

On the original topic, I, too, learned from history that the intensity and
immediacy of capitalism can be softened and made less inhumane.  At the same
time, doing so takes a great deal of organization and struggle on the left,
organization and struggle to the point that state and corporate elites agree
to coopt as much of the protest as they can stand to buy off.  Right now,
we're in the fourth decade of reaction against the gains forced/won by
previous struggles... which most moderate laborites, civil rightsists,
environmentalists, feminists, and beyond did not see coming, were unprepared
for, and have yet to recover from.

None of this makes capitalism sustainable and most of it simply displaces
crises in space and time but its better than nothing (though I'm expecting
not to get universal agreement on this from the list).

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:


> CB: What you say here doesn't contradict or refute Alan's claims. It's like
> in biology you would be denying that the commonalities of species of the
> same genus are not explained by their having a common ancestor. You are
> playing a silly game, Wojtek.
>
>
>
> Somebody: It's more like he's denying that the *differences* between
> species of the same genus are explained by their having a common ancestor,
> which is essentially what Alan was arguing.
>
>
>
> Going back to the original topic, it's clear to me that capitalism can be
> tamed to a degree and has been in most countries. Capitalism doesn't require
> children getting black lung disease working in the mines or Congolese
> villagers being worked to death on rubber plantations. Being an unemployed
> mother on food stamps is awful, but it's not the same as being sent to a
> 19th century workhouse or debtors prison.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>

-- 
*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy
Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Central Michigan University
124 Anspach Hall
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
517-881-6319