MarxSchmarx
12th April 2010, 07:40
A marxian analysis holds that capitalism has inherent contradictions, such as the interests of the individual capitalist to expand production and thereby raise the price of capital goods and labour conflicts with the interest of the capitalist class to keep these prices low, or the desire of the capitalist to pay the worker the bare minimum but needing a large market for their products.
Traditional views appear to hold that such contradictions lead to the unsustainability of the capitalist system, much in the way inherent contradictions of feudalism supposedly gave rise to capitalism.
Now, to some extent this contradiction can lead to mutual destruction of human society (say, through environmental degradation), but this answer is unsatisfying because presumably such mechanisms also operated to move to other historical modes of production, and therefore the progress of productive forces relied on the accumulation of these contradictions and should reasonably be expected to do so henceforth.
What I want to know is, to what extent does this leave room for leftists as agents of social change? If the inherent contradictions of capitalism render the system defunct, why should an individual work towards the new order? In short, what is the role of the activist in this theory of social change that relies on material contradictions.
Traditional views appear to hold that such contradictions lead to the unsustainability of the capitalist system, much in the way inherent contradictions of feudalism supposedly gave rise to capitalism.
Now, to some extent this contradiction can lead to mutual destruction of human society (say, through environmental degradation), but this answer is unsatisfying because presumably such mechanisms also operated to move to other historical modes of production, and therefore the progress of productive forces relied on the accumulation of these contradictions and should reasonably be expected to do so henceforth.
What I want to know is, to what extent does this leave room for leftists as agents of social change? If the inherent contradictions of capitalism render the system defunct, why should an individual work towards the new order? In short, what is the role of the activist in this theory of social change that relies on material contradictions.