tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post297067093361456075..comments2024-03-23T04:01:39.348-04:00Comments on Understanding Society: A 1934 debate about communism among American philosophersDan Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-1546888543088649502022-09-01T10:57:53.110-04:002022-09-01T10:57:53.110-04:00We need new models. Today we live in a world beset...We need new models. Today we live in a world beset by global problems. It is clear that liberal democracy as practiced in the United States has no answers. Consider three problems: global warming/climate change; impending pandemics; abject poverty in many global regions. These will require the spread of rational democratic sentiments and new political institutions. <br /><br />The most pressing problem is supercapitalism: the huge income and wealth inequality that places political power into the hands of the wealthiest and their political operatives. This is a self-augmenting positive feedback loop. Attempts to address the problem through campaign finance reform were met with new "constitutional" understandings in the Citizens United case that effectively made supercapitalism the official political economy. <br /><br />Finally, capitalism should not be understood in terms of market relations. Capitalism is a system of social relations; there were markets for good long before capitalism took hold. The essence of capitalism is social relations that compel labot in a competitive market place to secure even the most minimum means of livlihood. Capitalism is the effective control of the great masses of men, in all of the primary conditions of life, by their need to compete on market terms for their very lives. Such a system can not make provisions for decent dignified lives for the largest fractions of the population. Leonard Wakshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10948820385522641682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-14030066125570061452022-07-03T10:24:46.906-04:002022-07-03T10:24:46.906-04:00Thanks, Paul. The stakes were unbearably high in t...Thanks, Paul. The stakes were unbearably high in the 1930s -- Depression, fascism, Stalinist dictatorship, widespread economic hardship in the capitalist world. And they are high today: skyrocketing inequalities of wealth and income, millions of Americans lacking healthcare, government almost entirely constrained and controlled by the far right. And, of course, the looming disasters of irreversible climate catastrophe. We need deep conversations about the future we want to choose. Leaving our future to Mitch McConnell, the Oath Keepers, and Elon Musk is not a good plan for a decent, just future.Dan Littlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11801562568683345585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-8126393587366233242022-07-03T10:18:33.446-04:002022-07-03T10:18:33.446-04:00Evan, these are extensive questions. Two lines of ...Evan, these are extensive questions. Two lines of thought: Stalinism was a murderous, totalitarian regime from start to finish. And social democracy (market institutions, liberal democracy, extensive provisioning of basic goods like healthcare, education, guaranteed minimum income, ...) presents an alternative that is not simply hypothetical; it is essentially the Nordic model. (Esping-Anderson) We don't need dictatorship to have economic equity for all. (No argument that this is NOT the system we have in Britain, US, or most capitalist countries today.) Thanks for your thoughts.Dan Littlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11801562568683345585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-13220480210112194992022-07-03T08:00:01.144-04:002022-07-03T08:00:01.144-04:00Do we know on what grounds does Russel find Marx&#...Do we know on what grounds does Russel find Marx's theories of value and surplus value to be indefensible? Does he produce any historical/philosophical arguments against them?<br /><br />Also, I am curious as to why it seems so obvious to everybody how communism (stalinism) is a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen (which arguably and with hindsight might be qualified as such at certain junctures) while capitalism that actually led to WWII and set this horrible precedence is somehow innocent of the blood.<br /><br />Also, how come it is thought as commonplace that a decentralized system like capitalism is able to produce maximal good with minimal waste (in human life) when in actual historical fact, that is not the case. Is not human life wasted in our capitalist metropolises eg when the market finds that it's unprofitable to provide employment? Or when access to education, healthcare or insurance services is considered too risky for so many to even be considered eligible, not to mention actually obtain coverage?<br /><br /><br /><br />thank you so very much for this wealth of information on historical, philosophical and theoretical underpinnings that our understanding of our current situation impinges on<br /><br />--evanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-13264917467966100872022-07-03T07:26:45.202-04:002022-07-03T07:26:45.202-04:00I knew a fair amount about the more prominent of t...I knew a fair amount about the more prominent of these thinkers, Dewey and Russell in particular, from reading their work. Men like Hook and Eddy were not on my radar and obviously should have been. I was a child during McCarthyism, so had no sense of that until much later. Understanding more of how they thought about the bugbears of American capitalist thought and 'truth, justice and the American way', fills in some blanks regarding what some of were not taught in school. Enlightening seems a good word. History itself is a good teacher and source of knowledge and understanding---when it has not been selectively censored. In some venues today the term has been softened to read: moderated. In any case, education is ongoing. And a personal responsibility. Thanks for posting this back story.<br /><br /><br />Paul D. Van Pelthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13508874039164282696noreply@blogger.com