Karl Polanyi's "The Great Transformation"
I just found out this post isn't dead- so I'm bringing it back to the top for ease of access. I'll get on it tonight, but not now, because it's reading day and I have a three-on-three tournament to play in...
I've recently been reading "The Great Transformation" by Karl Polanyi. To quote the back cover, "Mr. Polanyi's immediate objective is to bring out, as he does with remarkable discernment, the social implications a particular economic system, the market economy that grew into full stature in the 19th century." More specifically, Polanyi traces the rise of free market capitalism since the end of feudalism and its effect on European social structures. I'm not going to review the whole book, but I wanted to bring up a couple points he makes that are relevant to recent and semi-recent topics.
1st Topic: Modernity's destructive effect on humanity- This has been kicked around a few times without, from my opinion, a clear cut indictment of how modernity negatively effects humanity. In Polanyi's opinion (which I think I at least partially agree with) the force that sets modernity against traditional humanity is the commodification that goes hand in hand with liberal economics. Specifically (my paraphrasing may lack some nuance here), modernity requires the commodification of three things: money, labor, and land. I'll skip the first for brevity, but I'll hit the last two. The commodification of land came first, and wreaked havoc on traditional social structures by removing the feudal bond between land and labor. Through enclosures and restrictions on land use, humanity (more specifically the classes of humanity without land) became displaced in their own country, which was inherently disastrous when culture was still inherently feudal (ie identity was defined at least partially through location and consequently allegiance to feudal lords). However, this displacement was necessary in order to free up the mobility of labor, so that the work that was created through capitalism could be done. In essence, this breaking of man's bond to land had be first accomplished so that the migration of labor to cities and factories could occur. Secondly, through the commodification of labor, man no longer existed outside the economy (such as being born noble), but rather his identity was defined through economic terms (wealth for instance) and his interests became subservient to economic considerations (without land there is no self-sufficiency, the choice now became factory labor or starvation).
I'm willing to concede this and to jump on J. Morgan's anti-modernity train with one important consideration- I only concede that modernity is destructive to traditional (read late feudal) humanity. By existing as products of modernity, the same problems that plagued humanity through the Industrial Revolution are no longer problems, they have already been accounted for in our existence. By accepting my role as commoditized labor, I don't have problems not being tied to land and such, because my identity is no longer tied to the institutions that lost the battle to capitalism and modernity.
One more quick point and I'm done- If the assumption that humanity is continually redefined through cultural/societal/technological/political evolution is held as true, than I find that blanket statements like "modernity is damaging to humanity" automatically have to be divorced from the implication it would be better if we could undo the change. At best, statements like "modernity is damaging to humanity" are ironical- sure we may have lost something, but we are only who we are and able to make that statement because of that loss, and we can't go back again.
In conclusion, I wish I was tied to land. I don't mind being commodified labor and I thank capitalism for all my materialist crap, but I'm sick of trying to move it every five months to a new state and a new job...
I've recently been reading "The Great Transformation" by Karl Polanyi. To quote the back cover, "Mr. Polanyi's immediate objective is to bring out, as he does with remarkable discernment, the social implications a particular economic system, the market economy that grew into full stature in the 19th century." More specifically, Polanyi traces the rise of free market capitalism since the end of feudalism and its effect on European social structures. I'm not going to review the whole book, but I wanted to bring up a couple points he makes that are relevant to recent and semi-recent topics.
1st Topic: Modernity's destructive effect on humanity- This has been kicked around a few times without, from my opinion, a clear cut indictment of how modernity negatively effects humanity. In Polanyi's opinion (which I think I at least partially agree with) the force that sets modernity against traditional humanity is the commodification that goes hand in hand with liberal economics. Specifically (my paraphrasing may lack some nuance here), modernity requires the commodification of three things: money, labor, and land. I'll skip the first for brevity, but I'll hit the last two. The commodification of land came first, and wreaked havoc on traditional social structures by removing the feudal bond between land and labor. Through enclosures and restrictions on land use, humanity (more specifically the classes of humanity without land) became displaced in their own country, which was inherently disastrous when culture was still inherently feudal (ie identity was defined at least partially through location and consequently allegiance to feudal lords). However, this displacement was necessary in order to free up the mobility of labor, so that the work that was created through capitalism could be done. In essence, this breaking of man's bond to land had be first accomplished so that the migration of labor to cities and factories could occur. Secondly, through the commodification of labor, man no longer existed outside the economy (such as being born noble), but rather his identity was defined through economic terms (wealth for instance) and his interests became subservient to economic considerations (without land there is no self-sufficiency, the choice now became factory labor or starvation).
I'm willing to concede this and to jump on J. Morgan's anti-modernity train with one important consideration- I only concede that modernity is destructive to traditional (read late feudal) humanity. By existing as products of modernity, the same problems that plagued humanity through the Industrial Revolution are no longer problems, they have already been accounted for in our existence. By accepting my role as commoditized labor, I don't have problems not being tied to land and such, because my identity is no longer tied to the institutions that lost the battle to capitalism and modernity.
One more quick point and I'm done- If the assumption that humanity is continually redefined through cultural/societal/technological/political evolution is held as true, than I find that blanket statements like "modernity is damaging to humanity" automatically have to be divorced from the implication it would be better if we could undo the change. At best, statements like "modernity is damaging to humanity" are ironical- sure we may have lost something, but we are only who we are and able to make that statement because of that loss, and we can't go back again.
In conclusion, I wish I was tied to land. I don't mind being commodified labor and I thank capitalism for all my materialist crap, but I'm sick of trying to move it every five months to a new state and a new job...