And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint… And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what […]
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Welcome
The original intention of historical materialism was to provide a theoretical foundation for interpreting the world in order to change it. This was not an empty slogan. It had a very precise meaning. It meant that Marxism sought a particular kind of knowledge, uniquely capable of illuminating the principles of historical movement and, at […]
What Does “Post-Capitalist” Mean?
We cannot begin to explore the subject of post-capitalism without a clear, working definition of the word capitalism. Otherwise, how would we know that capitalism was ending? We cannot have a clear definition of capitalism unless we understand what makes the capitalist mode of production unique. So we must understand what a mode of production […]
How Exactly Do Robots Destroy Capitalism?
The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. This sentence, taken from The Communist Manifesto (1848), is an excellent starting point for understanding the end of the capitalist system. All of the following is packed within this one succinct sentence: The […]
Preface to the Critique – With Commentary
In an earlier post I presented this excerpt from the preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, without comment. If you’ve never encountered this writing before you may prefer to read it without my comments first, to form your own opinion. If so, you’ll find it here. For the rest of us, here is the same […]
Louis Althusser and The Absolutely Fundamental Thesis
This may prove a challenging post. The French philosopher Louis Althusser (1918-1990) considered this subject — the question of which aspect of the mode of production has primacy — to be a difficult one to posit, let alone answer. He begins his essay, On the Primacy of the Relations of Production Over the Productive Forces, (a title which […]
Stephen Hawking Warns Capitalism is the Real Problem
In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session Stephen Hawking was asked the following question: I’m rather late to the question-asking party, but I’ll ask anyway and hope. Have you thought about the possibility of technological unemployment, where we develop automated processes that ultimately cause large unemployment by performing jobs faster and/or cheaper than people can […]
Why Karl Marx?
Someone is bound to wonder — Why bring up Karl Marx? Isn’t there some way to express what you are trying to say without complicating things by dragging in such a controversial figure? Well, yes, probably. But that would be intellectually dishonest. Marx was the first to see and describe the processes which drive changes in […]
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Joseph A. Schumpeter: Can Capitalism Survive?
“Can capitalism survive? No. I do not think it can.” So begins Joseph Schumpeter’s classic essay, Can Capitalism Survive?, which constitutes the middle third of his 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Schumpeter goes on to say, The thesis I shall endeavor to establish is that the actual and prospective performance of the capitalist system […]