Abstract
Diagnosis of capitalist economics as the ideology of an unlimited totalization of individualistic and negative freedoms (“freedom from”), which undermine and destroy all non-utilitarian registers of meaning, especially the moral and political, and provide a means and a mask for the rich to rule. Neo-liberalism diagnosed as an ersatz repetition (first tragedy, then comedy, but no one is laughing) of the once legitimate militancy of classical liberalism against traditional privileges of land and blood, but now turned against the social democratic reforms legitimated and required by the exaggerations and distortions of that same early liberalism, i.e., against positive social freedoms and duties (T. H. Green), from the side of liberalism, and against the commitments to democratic and peaceful means (E. Bernstein), from the side of Marxism, both of which acknowledge responsibilities for the common weal.
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- 1.
Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) long ago understood that there is a “circulation of elites,” a circulation which in no way challenges or undermines the basic opposition of rich and poor—indeed, quite the reverse, for the well-publicized stories of the little man who makes it big keep up the hopes of all the dispossessed.
- 2.
Fitzgerald’s lines are from his story “The Rich Boy,” published in 1926 in “Red Book” magazine. Hemingway’s telling retort appears in an article entitled “The Crack-Up,” by Lionel Trilling, published in “The Nation.” What Hemingway is suggesting, if I understand it rightly, is that it is not a matter of the rich being different people, being better or worse morally, say, or intellectually, but rather that they are the same sort of people as everyone else, but their money—not their individual character, their abilities—is what makes them powerful. Of course, Marx made the same observation in his 1844 manuscripts when he wrote: “The extent of the power of money is the extent of my power. Money’s properties are my properties and essential powers—the properties and powers of its possessor. Thus, what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my individuality. … I am stupid, but money is the real mind of all things and how then should its possessor be stupid? Besides, he can buy talented people for himself, and is he who has power over the talented not more talented than the talented?” Karl Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, trans. Martin Milligan, ed. Dirk J. Struik (New York: International Publishers, 1984), 167.
- 3.
The anti-choice anti-abortionists certainly agree on this point, which is why they insist on defining a human zygote as a full human being, and hence a being with intrinsic worth, dignity. Obviously the topic becomes genuinely difficult—rather than arbitrarily stipulative—when, for instance, the life of a mother is endangered by the birth of her child.
- 4.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has recently pointed out that the 14 wealthiest individuals in America own more wealth than the 40 % least wealthy Americans.
- 5.
E.g., the new ethics proposed by Spinoza, or the Marquis de Sade, or Nietzsche.
- 6.
“Combination among the capitalists is customary and effective; workers’ combination is prohibited and painful in its consequences for them.” Karl Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, 65.
- 7.
It is almost too good to be true that the name of the sorcerer in Disney’s animation is “Yen Sid,” which is “Disney” spelled backwards and divided in half. The original of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice story is Goethe’s poem Der Zauberlehrling (1797), for Goethe, at the very start of the era of the two revolutions, already foresaw some of its spiritual dangers.
- 8.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, ed. Edward Alexander (Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1999), 55.
- 9.
Green is acknowledged by Dewey in his article “Self-Realization as the Moral Ideal,” in Philosophical Review 2, (1893), 652–664.
- 10.
The top twenty biggest corporations grossed more than five trillion dollars in 2013 alone.
- 11.
A film recording of the speech can be found on YouTube. Let me also state that in the past, unlike today, Congress rarely interrupted the President’s speech with applause.
- 12.
Theodor Adorno, The Culture Industry, ed. J. M. Bernstein (New York: Routledge, 1991), 201.
- 13.
From Rosa Luxemburg, Rote Fahne, December 1918, cited in Paul Frolich, Rosa Luxemburg, transl. Johanna Hoornweg (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972), 189.
References
Felice, W. F. (1996). Taking suffering seriously: The importance of collective human rights. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Hegel, G. F. W. (1953). Reason in history (Trans: R. S. Hartman). New York: Bobbs-Merrill.
Luxemburg, R. (1978). Reform or revolution (Trans: Integrer). New York: Pathfinder Press.
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Cohen, R. (2016). A New Economic Order Without Violence. In: Berdayes, V., Murphy, J. (eds) Neoliberalism, Economic Radicalism, and the Normalization of Violence. International Perspectives on Social Policy, Administration, and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25169-1_10
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