This is a text response that I gave to a texting chain by some friends and myself. I thought it would be nice to place it here as well. To set up the context the text conversation was initiated by one of my friends who spoke about a university and used a term which is in vogue now in certain circles. The term being ‘predatory capitalism’. The other person on the text chain spoke about another term called made famous by the British Marxist Nancy Fraser called Cannibal Capitalism. This led to a rich conversation in many directions including the need to understand the role of education to form and inform whole and healthy people. I realized that I struggled with, not only the trajectory of the conversation but also certain ways in which the entire discussion was framed. This was my response; it is long for a text message…. ugh! I am essentially typing it word for word, with some minor editorial adjustments and grammatical corrections. Easier to see upon rereading. 😦
This is such a wonderful conversation. I will just add some ideas into this rich mix. I have become much more aware lately of the shortcomings of some of our instruments of analysis. Recently someone asked me if “I am a Marxist”. I answered in the affirmative. But I have come to realize that this isn’t about the ‘cult of personality” thing for me, I very much appreciate and use the Dialectical-Historical-Materialist (DHM) as an instrument to analyze reality. I very much struggle with the use of the entire language of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ goods or values or other such terms. Enrique Duissel who I worked with in my dissertation introduced virtually the beginning of each chapter in his magnificent work Ethics of Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion with the phrase; “This is a philosophy of Life”. I very much understand all Life (including human existence) as essentially best understood through the lens of Socially-Material-Historical vision. It does unfold in a Dialectical manner. Material is not reducible to ‘physical’ reality. It does recognize that human consciousness/values/morals etc. (in a sense all things immaterial) is in fact a product of a profoundly dynamic social/historical/material existence. To speak of a moment or break in the movement in reality between the material and the immaterial is to me something that is an inaccurate way of apprehending existence.
I was recently talking to someone about the Scriptural passage where Jesus fed the people during the Sabbath. I asked was he showing ‘contempt’ for the ‘higher’ (less material) religious values, and goods of Judaism. Was he, even inadvertently glorifying the ‘lower’ or lesser (but obviously more material) goods of the human experience? Or even the Divine? Did he demonstrate a lack of Faith (again an immaterial reality) by centering on the basest instinct of their gastrointestinal desires?
The two other items that I wanted to speak about are somewhat linked. (I realized this section is rather choppy but I will leave text for the most part in its entirety). Part of Marxist tradition speaks of Class Struggle as a foundational component to understanding reality. In a sense everything is an element of this reality. Nothing can be reduced exclusively to this element but not to take this element into account in one’s analysis will always lead to an incomplete. This concept is frequently misapprehended. In Capitalism (as in all systems) there are certain systemic patterns. I am constantly amazed when people speak of the system being ‘broken‘ or not ‘working right‘. The Capitalist system is working fabulously! It has thrived in an incredible fashion. It has mutated, evolved etc. in chameleon like fashion. The problem is the minute you critique Capitalism AS A SYSTEM you are labeled a Marxist. WHETHER THE CRITIQUE IS ACCURATE OR NOT!
I am almost guaranteed with 100% assurance that if they did a story about any element of social reality in Cuba by a for-profit media news center in the United States (virtually all of the mainstream media!) the term(s) Communist or Marxist would appear within the first (maybe second) paragraph of the story. Somehow any social issue is linked to the System of Communism (Marxist economic model). You can actually find an entire series of articles written about AI, education, housing crisis, militarism, climate crisis etc. you would rarely find the term Capitalism (not Free Market, not Economic etc. I mean specifically and with great precision Capitalism.) used its article/stories. We never speak about Capitalism as A SYSTEM. It’s always ‘predatory Capitalism’ or “Cannibalism Capitalism”. As though there was a period in the history of Capitalism in which there were no victims. Marx spoke glowingly about the strengths of Capitalism. Including how, because of Capitalism, which unleashed such powerful and unprecedented production powers as to make many of the previous conditions of the human experience no longer inevitable. However, he also understood Capitalism as a system. He realized how it is also causes, creates, and perpetuates massive levels of suffering and immiseration. But because we don’t we don’t want to critique Capitalism as a system (lest we be called a Marxist!) we keep pretending that it’s just not ‘working right’. .I think we must move towards a more concrete (and accurate) way of analyzing social reality.
I will end with one kind of ‘example’ of how this might be applied in a certain area of our society Pope Francis was very adroit and precise at realizing the ‘profit motive’ inherent in war in a Capitalist economy. Including its Class Dimension. I very much believe that the majority of the people in the modern world (especially industrialized North), especially in the academy, begin with the assumption that ‘nobody wants war’. This is a ludicrous assumption. The reality is that war is incredibly profitable. Any system predicated on the profit motive looooooves war!!! Same with understanding how education (or medicine, journalism, criminal justice system etc.) in the United States actually exists within a system predicated on Capital accumulation. To lament the loss or the ‘brokeness’ of any of these social issues without being willing to accurately diagnose the pathology causing its decay and dysfunction is to insure its continued deterioration. Or ‘success’ depending on what Class you talk to!
Prophetic Ruminations 