MindYourself
20th October 2008, 00:26
Some days ago, i was reading a political economy article in the official newspaper of the Greek Communist Party, the article itself being a product of its Central Comission, focused on the inevitable downfall of the capitalistic economic system.
(I strongly suspect this issue has been brought about countless times in this site, and this forum in particular, so i feel i must thank in advance those who reply for their patience.)
It analyzed how the capitalistic system leads to a huge socialization of labour, which does not produce public goods, but goods that apply to the needs of the market and that are profitable to the capitalists, thus leading to a growing inability to cover public needs, as the market itself gradually becomes a monopoly.
Using Marx's exact words, the authors predicted the above facts to lead to a social uprising, finally bringing down the way the capitalistic system works.
Perhaps my perception of Marx's theory is poor, but i think that the above do not take into account the fact that capitalism affects hugely our political and social systems and life.
In my opinion, modern times capitalism, has managed to control a great percentage of the political processes needed, to play a central-planning like role in modern societies. In my perception, big company trusts over the world have managed to pretain a sufficient (according to their profit goals) level of covering needs for the public, while they can still make profit. This method is enhanced by the fact that public medias and tight working programms prevent the vast majority from getting the adequate education and information they need to revolt. They also prevent them from getting the conscience of the potential strength their movement would hold. In few words, people lack the necessary social interaction to revolt substantially.
I say substantially, because the capital usually has the strength to withstand social pressure, by disorientating it towards the political leadership (giving thus an important example of the effects of the above mentioned hypothesis). All the capital has to do is reduce profits for just a little while (if social conscience is too high) and change the political leadership it basically funds. If not, it can practically do anything to continue making profit, even when the problem is a product of interior capitalist processes and not a product of a clash between public and capitalist interests, just like the contemporary financial crisis, when everywhere in the western world, governments use public wealth to refinance their operations.
So to sum up, i think i doubt capitalism has the ablity to destroy itself, unless something truly radical happens concerning people's social awareness to help this whole process get an end.
(I strongly suspect this issue has been brought about countless times in this site, and this forum in particular, so i feel i must thank in advance those who reply for their patience.)
It analyzed how the capitalistic system leads to a huge socialization of labour, which does not produce public goods, but goods that apply to the needs of the market and that are profitable to the capitalists, thus leading to a growing inability to cover public needs, as the market itself gradually becomes a monopoly.
Using Marx's exact words, the authors predicted the above facts to lead to a social uprising, finally bringing down the way the capitalistic system works.
Perhaps my perception of Marx's theory is poor, but i think that the above do not take into account the fact that capitalism affects hugely our political and social systems and life.
In my opinion, modern times capitalism, has managed to control a great percentage of the political processes needed, to play a central-planning like role in modern societies. In my perception, big company trusts over the world have managed to pretain a sufficient (according to their profit goals) level of covering needs for the public, while they can still make profit. This method is enhanced by the fact that public medias and tight working programms prevent the vast majority from getting the adequate education and information they need to revolt. They also prevent them from getting the conscience of the potential strength their movement would hold. In few words, people lack the necessary social interaction to revolt substantially.
I say substantially, because the capital usually has the strength to withstand social pressure, by disorientating it towards the political leadership (giving thus an important example of the effects of the above mentioned hypothesis). All the capital has to do is reduce profits for just a little while (if social conscience is too high) and change the political leadership it basically funds. If not, it can practically do anything to continue making profit, even when the problem is a product of interior capitalist processes and not a product of a clash between public and capitalist interests, just like the contemporary financial crisis, when everywhere in the western world, governments use public wealth to refinance their operations.
So to sum up, i think i doubt capitalism has the ablity to destroy itself, unless something truly radical happens concerning people's social awareness to help this whole process get an end.