I'm almost done reading Marx. I've got chapters 8-15 of Capital Vol. III to get through today, at which point I'll be done with the term's reading and hopefully back to Simone, who misses me (and I her.) Volume III of Capital is where Marx claims that capitalism's immanent tendencies lead invariably and unavoidably to crises of overproduction and unemployment, which in turn (inevitably) culminate in the collapse of the system. It's one of those books in which a very smart person very carefully tried to predict the future.
Marxists have, ever since it was published, written all kinds of essays trying to explain A. why capitalism hadn't collapsed just yet and B. why it totally would real soon. It's weird confronting some of those essays, because they're often tinged with this kind of wild-eyed secular millenarianism, this earnest hope that the world order will collapse in the name of something better. (The great thing about millenarianism in any context is that it allows for infinitely-delayed satisfaction: Jesus isn't here, but he will be soon. Capitalism is still here, but it won't be soon. There are signs! There are indications! Lather, rinse, repeat, etc. etc. etc.)
All snideness aside, it does strike me that I'm afraid of the catastrophic collapse of the quotidian systems we know and rely on. The wealth gap grows every year, UCSC is overfilled with students and yet they keep admitting more, housing costs are absurd and getting more so, we're the first generation in recent American history that won't do better than our parents, finite fossil fuel resources, global warming is officially happening, Cheerios are now like 5 bucks a box, there is no God and no afterlife and holy shit is that scary, there are as many as 800 applicants for a tenure-track position in many American and European history positions at US universities, I still don't know German and my spoken French still sucks, despite everything a republican could very well win in 2008, outsourcing overseas, somehow attention spans are even shorter than they used to be, students can barely write their names, let alone an essay, my stomach's still flat but I haven't had a 6-pack since 2001, and we no longer believe in the existence of truth.
As a historian, I know that there's never been a good time to be alive. Right now is the same thing. So I suppose we're par for the course.
3.07.2007
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7 comments:
Oh I hope I'm the first commentor... this is a fun one.
But before that I want to apologize for when I was flip about the French and their language some months ago. I guess I forgot about the Nouvelle Vague! I saw "Out-1" last weekend. Dolce Vita was right -their language and attitude does convery a subtlety about the existential predicament, for example, that English and definitely American English rarely approaches.
In response to your dread-post, though, well, I perscribe Out-1! I mean, it's okay. You can still have kids if you think it might have joy/ fear/ meaning producing effects -- there's at least a generation to go before the entire planet is 120 degrees.
And as COMPLETELY EASY as it is to forget, there are still so many people who just want it to be kind of okay... for everyone, primarily for themselves, but if they can get it then for everyone.
Did Marx know about advertising? Becasue I think advertising is the biggest threat to the goodwill of humanity.
XO
Nope, Marx was pre-consumer society. Lots and lots of 20th c. Marxists wrote about consumer society, however, including marketing.
Yeah, Americans are not so in to the existential predicament. And I am very, very glad that there are a lot of people who do just want it to be kind of ok. I fall into that class myself.
Don't despair, the destruction of an existing order is periodically necessary to clean out the system. A new order will eventually rise built on different dynamics. The nature of this cannot be foreseen, part of the deficiency associated with Marx's teleological framework. Change and destruction is necessary for cleansing the system, life goes on, hopefully dynamics will change before we have hop off the depleted planet due to our locust-like behavior.
Have faith, my friend - at least we have text messaging.
Side note: I am not at all emo about this whole thing, just rocking some cynicism.
I hear you.
Kick back, have a beer, and wait for the one moment of infinite clarity and exquisite beauty before we're all nuked to hell.
Just remember, we're young, brilliant, beautiful, and eventually the old geezers will retire or kick off.
We'll either be in the Ivory Tower, or the most over-educated group of admins/IT workers/retail employees/bartenders/strippers/waiters.
Who knows, maybe we (in conjunction with all adjuncts and other non-tenure track faculty) are the new academic proletariat?
to the barricades!
And people wonder why the French work less, drink more, eat finely prepared meals that last 3 hours, and are more concerned about the art and/or message of a movie than whether or not the special effects will produce a box office hit. They figured out what really matters a loooooong time ago.
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