Re: [Marxism] The Duality of Marxism: is capitalism totalizing or inhibiting?

[brownh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Haines Brown)]

Junaid,

Thank you for an interesting post. I won't venture to reflect on its
entirety, but only one central issue, and then in rather abstract
terms. This is about your reference to a "totalizing" system.

A key element in Marxist thinking is the contradiction. If you think
about it, it becomes clear that contradictions can exist only in
relatively closed systems. That is, at the time of Marx's writing,
states were relatively closed. Colonialism existed, and did often play
a very important role in economic development that can't be ignored,
but its effect was not sufficient to prevent the emergence of class
contradictions associated with rapid industrial development at home.

No sooner did this happen during the so-called "Second Industrial
Revolution" than we enter into the "Age of Imperialism", which began
to dissolve the state as a relatively closed system with the effect
that class contradictions were repressed. My little thesis here is
that class contradictions developed under conditions of 19th century
industrialization, in which industrialization was the primary driving
force and colonialism, while a factor that often played an important
role, was external to the system's basic dynamics within individual
states. This window of opportunity closed with imperialism, which
shifted the struggle onto somewhat different plains (which I'll not
elaborate here).

Imperialism is by its nature "totalizing", much as is implied by the
term "globalization" today. What this seems to imply is that with the
near completion of globalization, we again begin to experience a
closure of the system, only now it is global in scope rather than
confined to individual states. If so, then class contradictions are
bound to deepen rapidly once again, this time on the global level.

If true, then we should have every reason to be optimistic about the
possibility of successful class class struggle in the near
future, international in scope and undoubtedly having a character
rather different than was manifested during the Second Industrial
Revolution. If I'm right, and I hope so, Capitalism is necessarily
loosing its flexibility and its options, and so its lifespan is
nearing an end.

--

       Haines Brown
         KB1GRM
         ET1(SS) U.S.S. Irex 482

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism