Harvey, David, Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: Alienation, Democracy at Work
Source: Spencer Davis, Man working on tools. Unsplash
Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: Alienation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01A0prJud-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKAeER1WOuE
Claim: The failure of satisfaction from capitalism results in discontented populations, which raises questions whether the capitalist model is the best way to go. We need to create a new political economy.
Why relevant: Anger produced by alienation makes politics instable and is captured by politician to redirect to issues other than capitalism (immigration, white suprematism, drug addiction etc.). Ultimately, capitalism is the reason why we feel abandoned, neglected and also the reason for decline in life expectancy.
Notes: Alineation helps to uncover the links between politics and economy.
In the Marxian time alientation was different - capital obscures humans as species-beings from what they are capable of. Thus, it was grounded in the humanist ideal, however problematic for Marx too. He later reworked this concept in the more scientific, capitalism-grounded form.
In Grundrisse, alienation means that we are alienated from something that have no control of. Eg in the act of exchange, a rather technical meaning. The workers have no right of the value of the commodities they produce.
Alienation happens in the free market situation, where "coercive laws of competition" - eg capitalist is constrained by what the market demands, or abstractions (this is common with Adam Smith). Alienation is thus embedded in the capitalist system, with both workers and capital are unfree. Legislation here is designed to mitigate the capitalist tendencies such as making the working longer. Alienation also exists between capital and nature, where the latter seen as whereupon the extraction happens.
Due to alienation it is not usual for worker not to like or care about their work. However, it is possible for workers to be satisfied by their labour processes, - the laternative is presented with the case where the work process is organised by workers. I cannot agree to the claim that, in connection to the aboe, introducing machinery and other technical improvements into the workflow increases alienation because workers' role is reduce to a less exciting role of machine operator. In software engineering - and in all kinds of contemporary occupations beyond it - humans are operating one technical tool or the other, some of which are indeed exciting, particularly in software.
Andre Gorz, in response to uprisings of 1968 attempts to rethink the labour process that would be less alienating. A compensatory consumerism idea came as the way to mitigate the miserable work conditions. In result many consumer niches and identity politics of lifestyles (including sexuallity) emerged in 1970s and 80s. While wages remained stagnant, the prices of consumer goods weer steadily declining and the "affluent worker" figure emerged. Why doesn't consumer capitalism doesn't work? Planned obsolensence leads to frustration. Role of new technologies is, to Marx, to increase the level of exploitation.
Changing form of consumtion: making spectacle: non-exlusionary goods, which are consumed instantaneously (meaning that if one person consumes doesn't stop others from consuming), such as TV series.
Discontent with capitalism gives renewed interest of population with religion (evangelical, certain brands of islam, etc.) and raises environmental concerns. In other words, such alienated populations accumulate anger, which leads to mobilisation and political instability. At the same time, capitalism is the last to be blame
