From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Sun Mar 12 2006 - 15:58:07 EST
The concept of crisis does not necessarily imply decline. What may be involved is an increasing difficulty in maintaining existing class relations of dominance, and an increasing inability of the mechanism of private accumulation to produce real accumulation of capital. Suppose that we look 30 to 40 years on, then we can expect to see on a world scale the sort of conjuntural balance that existed in western europe at the end of the 60s. The accumulation of capital then met limits in the slowdown of the relative growth of the proletariat. This manifested itself both economically as a declining rate of profit, and politically as a crisis of dominance and of the private mechanism of accumulation. Capitalism escaped this crisis through the opening up first of the asian periphery and then of China and now India. A lesser short term factor has been the re-proletarianisation of the working class of eastern europe. But because of the chinese one parent family policy the labour reserves of China will only sustain the current rate of accumulation for another couple of decades at most - India will last a bit longer. The decadence that will ensue then will be a global shift in the balance of class forces towards labour and away from capital. This form of decadence is something we can reasonably look forward to. -----Original Message----- From: OPE-L on behalf of Jerry Levy Sent: Sun 3/12/2006 4:17 PM To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Subject: Re: [OPE-L] The ideology of capitalist decline and decadence Jurriaan, I don't disagree with your points. So what I'll write here could be thought of as additions. There is a culture among many Marxists which celebrates and looks forward to and projects crisis. Why celebrate crisis? The presumption seems to be that crisis will hasten the revolutionary process. So, in a sense, the 'pessimism' associated with continually forecasting crises could be thought of as being the flip side of 'revolutionary optimism." Sometimes this thesis is also accompanied by claims about "decadence". Indeed, there is a group on the Net which was formed to: "discuss the hypothesis that the capitalist mode of production has become decadent on a world scale, i.e. incapable of any further positive contribution to the development of humanity." (on that group, the following web site was recommended: http://www.endangeredphoenix.com .) So, the ideology of capitalist decline goes, at least in some cases, hand-in-hand, with beliefs about decadence. I don't really see the usefulness or historical validity of referring to a special phase of capitalism as being decadent. Bourgeois decadence has existed at all points in capitalist history, hasn't it? And, before capitalism, there were plenty of examples of decadence under feudalism and slavery both while these modes of production were on their ascendancy and decline. Further, I don't really see the connection asserted between decadence and the (alleged) inability of capitalism to make "any further contribution to the development of humanity." Certainly there are lots of examples of bourgeois decadence today (New York City is a great place to live if you want to observe and catalog some of those many examples) and historically (e.g. consider the lifestyles of the "robber barons") and while we could object on moral and ecological and humanitarian grounds to the conspicuous consumption and lifestyle of the bourgeoisie, why would that decadence preclude the possibility of further increase in the forces of production under capitalism? [Those who make this claim about decadence have also highlighted what happened to New Orleans. While what happened there could be thought of as representing a crass disregard for (working class, poor, and minority) life, this hardly represents something new, does it? When in US history, for instance, would the state have responded better to the needs of the poor in urban areas? It could be thought of as being decadent in a sense, but not in a special sense associated with only the current epoch (supposedly of 'decline') of capitalism.] Decadence -- just another over-used and imprecise word used by Marxists intended to convey nothing particularly precise. In any event, _even if_ capitalism was decadent in the sense above, would that usher in by itself a revolutionary movement and transformation? I think not. The Marxian narrative -- at least for many Marxists -- hasn't really advanced significantly beyond the summarization of "the general conclusion" which Marx wrote about in the "Preface" to _A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy_. In solidarity, Jerry
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