[lbo-talk] Capitalism is not a conspiracy...

Dennis Redmond metalslorg at gmail.com
Sat Sep 24 12:22:14 PDT 2011


On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:


> Other social forms are NOT "systems" as capitalism is, nor is there
> the separation of state an "economy" that occurs under capitalism.

A qualification: precapitalist modes of production were most certainly systems. All of the feudal land empires had vast state superstructures, which operated with relative autonomy from the productive base (peasantry). No, they weren't total systems -- they were poorly organized by today's standards, and were ruled ultimately by coercion rather than the commodity form. But they were highly complex systems, which anticipated many of the features of our own system.

That said -- I would agree that it's important to be clear that today we're battling transnational capitalism, and that the notion that capitalism needs to be modernized and freed from the archaic remnants of feudalism is reactionary. Example: right now, the neolibs are scrambling to cast the Arab Spring as the removal of senior management, because they're desperately hoping that everything will go back to bubble-plunder as usual. Not going to happen. The Arab Spring was -- and is -- an insurrection against neoliberalism.

-- DRR



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