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capitalism-then [2017/11/08 13:23]
Richard Greeman
capitalism-then [2017/11/10 14:21]
Richard Greeman
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 World capitalism'​s ideological hegemony was of course maintained by a constant barrage of propaganda, that is to say advertising and public relations, not just for particular competing brands, but for consumerism as a way of life and ultimately for the system itself. This to the exclusion of any serious discussion of alternate systems in the media and public discourse, whether enforced by censorship or cooptation. But even pervasive propaganda with the underlying threat of repression cannot preserve the political and social //​legitimacy//​ on which the survival of a regime or system depends. This was proven when the so-called "​Communist"​ system in Russia and East Europe, with its extensive propaganda and police-state security apparatus, collapsed like a house of cards in 1989. World capitalism'​s ideological hegemony was of course maintained by a constant barrage of propaganda, that is to say advertising and public relations, not just for particular competing brands, but for consumerism as a way of life and ultimately for the system itself. This to the exclusion of any serious discussion of alternate systems in the media and public discourse, whether enforced by censorship or cooptation. But even pervasive propaganda with the underlying threat of repression cannot preserve the political and social //​legitimacy//​ on which the survival of a regime or system depends. This was proven when the so-called "​Communist"​ system in Russia and East Europe, with its extensive propaganda and police-state security apparatus, collapsed like a house of cards in 1989.
  
-According to 20th century world-systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein,​ ultimately a system'​s legitimacy depends on its ability to convince the population of "those who seem to be doing poorly in the short run that they will do better, even much better, in some longer run, precisely because of the structure of the system, and that consequently they should support the continue functioning of the system and its decision-making process."​ (//​Utopistics//,​ 1998). Thus the myth that the workers in Russia and East Europe were "​building socialism"​ and moving towards a new society of peace and plenty provided legitimacy for the "​Communist"​ system – until it was no longer credible, and the system collapsed. Thus the "​Horatio Alger" myth that any industrious person+According to 20th century world-systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein,​ ultimately a system'​s legitimacy depends on its ability to convince the population of "those who seem to be doing poorly in the short run that they will do better, even much better, in some longer run, precisely because of the structure of the system, and that consequently they should support the continue functioning of the system and its decision-making process."​ (//​Utopistics//,​ 1998). Thus the myth that the workers in Russia and East Europe were "​building socialism"​ and moving towards a new society of peace and plenty provided legitimacy for the "​Communist"​ system – until it was no longer credible, and the system collapsed. Thus the "​Horatio Alger" myth that any industrious person ​could become a millionaire captain of industry like Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates continued to blind the masses of wage-earners to the increasingly severe inequality under capitalism until they were no longer able to keep such hopes alive, and the system lost its legitimacy.  
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 +The second reason for capitalism'​s 500-plus years of hegemony as the dominant world-system,​ despite periodic economic crises that plagued it from the beginning was it capacity for adaptation to new circumstance and above all to the fact that it still had new world'​s to conquer and pillage, so that fresh wealth kept pouring into the system from ever new corners of the planet in the form of basic materials like gold or petroleum, new reservoirs of cheap labor, and new market into which it could dump its ever-increasing over-production of goods. With the advent of full globalization at the end of the 20th century and the rise of previously under-developed China as the main industrial rival to the long-dominant United States, at the beginning of the 21st, this era of constant capitalist expansion came to an end, and capitalism'​s inner contradictions,​ long latent, rose to the surface and provoked the first truly world-wide financial crash and global depression, from which it was unable to recover.  
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 +This historical process was long invisible to contemporary observers, both among investors, who increasingly depended on financial bubbles to increase their share of the world'​s wealth, and among most Marxists, who failed to understand the abstract, long-term nature of Marx's analysis of capital and gave up waiting for what they imagined would be its imminent collapse. Since this process was complicated,​ let us look at it in detail...
  
  
capitalism-then.txt · Last modified: 2018/02/07 19:01 by admin