Book Description
On Wall Street, in the culture of high tech, in American government: Libertarianism-the simple but radical idea that the only purpose of government is to protect its citizens and their property against direct violence and threat-has become an extremely influential strain of thought. But while many books talk about libertarian ideas, none until now has explored the history of this uniquely American movement-where and who it came from, how it evolved, and what impact it has had on our country.
In this revelatory book, based on original research and interviews with more than 100 key sources, Brian Doherty traces the evolution of the movement through the unconventional life stories of its most influential leaders-Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman-and through the personal battles, character flaws, love affairs, and historical events that altered its course. And by doing so, he provides a fascinating new perspective on American history-from the New Deal through the culture wars of the 1960s to today's most divisive political issues. Neither an exposi nor a political polemic, this entertaining historical narrative will enlighten anyone interested in American politics.
Customer Reviews:
Thorough History Of The Libertarian Movement.......2007-07-18
I am not a libertarian. But I do support their stance on certain issues such as being pro-immigration, against military imperialism and for civil liberties, including the legalization of prostitution and drugs. This book is a very thorough and well researched history of the movement. But, at over 600 pages, it is not really for those seeking a brief introduction.
Doherty begins the movement's history with the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises and proceeds, more or less, chronologically describing key libertarian figures such as F.A. Hayek, Rose Wilder Lane, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard and Milton Friedman. Doherty is a senior editor at Reason magazine and thus obviously a libertarian himself. But I found his overall approach to be balanced and he certainly wasn't afraid to describe the personal faults of important libertarian figures. For instance, Ayn Rand comes across as an insufferable egomaniac who turned her Objectivist philosophy movement into something resembling a religious cult (based on the worship of her) before eventually driving away nearly everyone associated with her. On the other hand, I found Murray Rothbard to be a more likable character, at least during his Circle Bastiat days.
Rothbard is also the person who was most involved in bringing libertarian ideas to the radicals of the 1960's. As someone who came of age in the counter-culture, I have always recognized that there was a link between the bohemian's and the libertarian's emphasis on individual freedom. However, the truth is that most politically minded counter-cultural types tend to lean towards a sort of leftist communal anarchism and would probably identify as "radicals against capitalism" instead of "radicals for capitalism". Still I do see some similarties there and will be interested to read another of Doherty's books - "This Is Burning Man: The Rise Of A New American Underground".
In any case, I agree with the previous reviewer that every significant political philosophy deserves it's own written history and this one is very well written, detailed and worthy of being read.
Uninspiring history.......2007-07-17
This is a beefy book that needs a strong dose of willpower to finish. It reads more like a brain dump than something that's had some thought devoted to its structure (hence presumably requiring the "freewheeling" qualifier in the title), or some editorial pruning to its frequent repetition. It is useful, though, as a single source to look up the names that crop up in any discussion with _American_ libertarians (libertarians/anarchists in the rest of the world are dogmatically anti-capitalist).
The book confirms that the American libertarian philosophy is the economic-determinist twin of the Marxist one, with the premise that a simple economic formula will free everyone. For the libertarians, its "private property and free markets"; for the Marxist, it is "state-owned production and central planning". With the libertarians, you just hand over your freedom to the property owner. That is, if you can even afford to participate in their free market.
One logical corollary of the formula shows up in the book in the person of Andrew Galambos, the guru of Harry Browne, twice Presidential candidate of the American Libertarian Party. Galambos taught courses on capitalism, but attendees could not talk to anyone about the content, since the ideas were owned by Galambos. (However, there are apparently a few American libertarians who oppose intellectual property.)
A really good analysis of the absurdities underlying what passes for the political philosophy underlying "libertarianism" and "anarcho-capitalism", even assuming their central proposition of the State being an inherently evil institution, is a document available on the web called "An Anarchist FAQ", written by left-libertarians and anarchists, who are obviously sceptical of any government. Since this book is a history, there understandably aren't any pages devoted to a _decent_ defence of the ideology from its critics.
As the other reviews describe, the central flow of the narrative is woven around Mises, Hayek, Rand, Friedman and Rothbard, with the other libertarians and institutions discussed in major digressions. Of all the people mentioned in this hagiography, one person who stood out was Robert Anton Wilson, a recently deceased libertarian science fiction author, who seemed to have a genuine interest in seeing the whether the professed aims of libertarianism would help those who needed it the most.
The material on Austrian economics is interesting, since it's perhaps not well known that it's quite sceptical of the ideas underlying the dominant neo-classical school, which seems to the uninitiated to be all about market-driven solutions. There is some discussion of Hayek's screed against central planning, but too little about how it applies to the central planning that takes place inside any corporation. It was striking that Mises, the founding Austrian economist, rejected, _on principle_, any empirical verification of Austrian theory against real-world data. Quite a "rational " position, that, perhaps explaining why Austrian economics was not (and perhaps still is not) taken seriously.
An Excellent and Fun History.......2007-06-29
This book is the first comprehensive history of the American libertarian movement, from its roots in the American Revolution, to Ron Paul, Cato and beyond. Along the way, the author looks at 19th Century philosophers whose anarchism was based in a strong belief in individual liberty to the nadir of American individual in the crisis of the Great Depression and the patriotic collectivism of World War Two. In 1943, it seemed that individualism was dead, so much so that the last "classic" individual anarchist, Albert Jay Nock, entitled his autobiography "The Memoirs of a Superfluous Man."
It is at that point that the story really picks up. For also in 1943, three remarkable women, Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane and Ayn Rand each published works that would rally believers in individual liberty. The following year, Frederick Hayek would publish "The Road to Serfdom" and the battle against government control would begin. Doherty makes many stops along the way, addressing the many disparate strands that are American libertarianism. From the respectable businessmen who joined the Foundation for Economic Education, to the students at the Freedom School, to the anarchism of Murray Rothbard, the radicalism of Karl Hess and the back to the land movement, Doherty shows the characters, the freewheeling, and the backstabbing.
While the term libertarian is still somewhat loaded, thanks to the sometimes strange people that inhibit the Libertarian Party, Doherty also shows how libertarianism has gone mainstream. While early Austrian economists Mises and Hayek had trouble finding academic berths in the United States, the "Chicago School" has built a network of academics. Milton Freidman advised presidents and one of his disciples now sits as head of the Federal Reserve (ironic as Friedman wanted to abolish the Federal Reserve). Whereas in the early 1960s, libertarian ideas were often passed around in mimeographed newsletters, today, it is discussed in libertarian think tanks and in glossy magazines.
Doherty really did his homework. Much of the book contains personal remembrances gleaned from an incredible number of interviews conducted over about 10 years. And as the book comes to present day, Doherty, an editor at Reason Magazine and connected with many modern libertarian organizations, takes on a very conversational tone.
In short, the book is well researched, easy to read and fun. I highly recommend it.
The Story of an Awakening.......2007-06-25
What a great read! Doherty researched his subject (and subjects) almost exhaustively and gave a sometimes breezy, sometimes dense, all the time entertaining portrait of Libertarianism and its founders. Libertarians (and I count myself as one) who boast that their "time has come" are as deluded as the conspiracy nuts who KNOW that Bush is in cohoots with Osama, Saddam, Jews, Saudis, Nazis, aliens - take your pick. I've always contended that Libertarianism will never be a political force because of the very nature of the philosophy - an anti-collectivist attitude that rejecting the sublimation of the individual to the group that is the hallmark of modern politics. In this Brave New World, everything from bathroom flushes to the size of holes in Swiss cheese is politicized. Incredibly, there are those who argue these issues with the passion of the newly converted - I mark it down to the substitution of ideology for religion.
Libertarians are critical thinkers, intelligent and questioning. Even a casual perusal of this work makes that evident. They somehow found the intellectual fortitude to reject the overwhelming majority belief in a nanny State. The movement has the highest percentage of atheists of any political group and yet, for all their smarts, they are constantly battling one another. They can only agree on the broadest and vaguest concepts - non-coercion, limited government, individual and property rights. Maybe it's the absence of the ubiquitious "Vote for me and I'll start a program" politics that voters need. The personalities in the book are heavy hitters - Von Mises, Rand, Rothbard, Hayek, Freidman and then there are all the others - Ron Paul, Popper, Brown, etc. Rand is mainly discussed through her fiction although her non-fiction is almost highlighted. Hayek's advocacy of freedom along with the brilliant but turgid von Mises is contrasted with the almost sunny, public Friedman.
Libertarianism arose in the GOP and it remains almost exclusively in that realm. (Paul says that Republicans were the original Libertarians.) The only "leftist" thread in Libertarianism is the anarchist leaning of some. The Democrat embrace of group rights, the nanny state, high taxes and (until recently) foreign intervention has prevented the rise of any movement from that side. The common thread, the glue that holds the book together is Rothbard. His decades-long search to find his philosophical base was both repelling and fascinating as he switched allegiances, picked fights, protested this or that perceived slight and yet remained in the spotlight. One is suspicious that this was his real goal at times. His claim never to have changed views is absurd and yet his machinations give the book a well-needed "spine" that allows the action to flow chronologically. As in most books about Libertarianism, the subjects of economic and human rights arise since there is a direct correlation between the two.
Doherty strikes a fine balance between theory, biography, gossip and commentary. In many books like this, either the ideology or the personalities receive short shrift. I found the reading incredibly interesting but for others it will be a chore. In the end one is both awed at the human effort that has been expended toward the idea of freedom and saddened that so few seem to grasp those ideas.
Push Back the State.......2007-06-24
Every movement deserves its 700 page history and Brian Doherty has written an outstanding one for the libertarian movement. He focuses on five seminal libertarian thinkers, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard and Milton Friedman, but certainly doesn't ignore the other people who have made the movement so colorful. The book is consistently enlightening and provides biographical details of its major players that I didn't know. And, contrary to those who would rewrite history, Doherty makes it clear that Rand's "Objectivist" movement left a trail of broken lives in its wake, not the least of which was Rand's.
As other reviewers have noted, perhaps a few too many mistakes crept into this book and there are certainly some questionable judgments, but this is "our history" and all libertarians should be grateful to Mr. Doherty.
Customer Reviews:
one foot in the class struggle, and one in the ivory tower.......2006-08-08
Lukacs' emphasis here on the importance of the ideological terrain in the class struggle was pathbreaking, and this book contains the fruits of a fine mind absorbed with interest and passion in the socialist cause. However the work is marred by a highly abstract and abstruse style of presentation, a style that would reach baffling lows in the writings of his followers in the Frankfort school.
In these pages, Lukacs scores some palpable hits against the ideological dominance of the bourgoisie, as well as against the opportunism and capitulation of the social democratic forces ascendant in the working class movements of Western Europe after WWI. His early recognition that it is precisely where capitalism is most highly developed that it is most difficult for the working class to organize against it turned Marx's assumptions about the progression of socialism on their head. Lukacs' emphasis on the necessary organic link between theory and forms of movement organization are lucid and welcome. But his failure to follow up on his insights and theorize methods of organization that go beyond Leninist dogma, even where he recognizes the problems involved in democratic-centralist party building, is a gaping weakness.
For those coming to the book out of an interest in the history and practice of socialism, I would recommend sticking to the shorter essays: "The Marxism of Rosa Luxemburg" for its examination of the links between crisis, class consciousness, and conflict; "Class Consciousness", for a relatively succinct presentation of the class struggle in the realm of ideology; and "Legality and Illegality" and "On the Methodology of Organization" for more concrete discussion of communist party practice. Most of the rest of the book consists of belabored and highly abstract philosophical arguments that assume a high level of familiarity with Kant, Hegel, and Marx.
The Greatest Philosophical Work Inspired by the Russian Revolution.......2006-02-10
Georg Lukacs, already a major figure in the intellectual avant-garde of Central Europe before, underwent a substantial transformation in and through his experience of the October Revolution in Russia and its revolutionary ramifications elsewhere. This book documents the results of that transformation at the level of thought.
I depart from the reader from Phoenix's comments fundamentally - understanding this book, or that of the Frankfurt School writers who were acknowledgely inspired by it (but, by no means, reproduce its arguments), as well as "raw Hegel" has little or nothing to do with IQ, though, of course, education is a prerequisite to any meaningful engagement with it.
As is widely recognized and is obvious from its great length, the central essay of this book is where Lukacs most systematically explicates his re-appropriation of Marxian social theory. The extent to which this essay is itself internally consistent is a matter of dispute. But that aside, it is, without any doubt, a very powerful piece. However, the other essays are also valuable, though they typically require a fairly solid grounding in the history of the international left up through the early 1920s.
Unlike so many of the existing translations of Marx and the Frankfurt School, this book is fairly reliably translated. For those of us who prefer to read this material in English, this is a very valuable volume.
The Root of Critical Theory.......2000-04-12
The grand and celebrated critiques of capitalistic techno-rationality that emerged from the Frankfurt school are all rooted in the dialectical emphasis of Lukacs. Hegelian notions of reification and alienation that Lukacs resurrected even showed up in radically mutated forms in French poststructuralism. This, as well as Horkheimer's "Dialectic of Enlightenment" are must-reads for New-Left enthusiasts who have neither the time nor the IQ to comprehend raw Hegel. Dialectical thinking is at the root of the philosophies of Hegel, Sartre, Heidegger, Marx, Marcuse, Adorno, Lukacs, Horkheimer, and Neumann, and this book is an excellent introduction to the ontology of capitalism as examined through a whole new cognitive apparatus: dialectical thought.
replay for unchange kapitalism world.......2000-03-26
the Lukacs' theory about History and Class Consciousness answered the question, why the socialist world not yet realized today. Lukacs said that the importance of history not in proletarian class' consciousness. and so, the borgeouis can still made the false consciousness to hegemony proletarian class. i think, it made Lukacs as a outstanding philosopher of neo-marxist today!
Average customer rating:
- A most disappointing text
- Tackles the hard question.
- A true classic
- Brilliancy in the line of Mises and Rothbard
- Why Buffalo-pucky Rises to the Top, and what to do about it!
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The Machinery of Freedom: A Guide to Radical Capitalism
David D. Friedman
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Book Description
This book argues the case for a society organized by private property, individual rights, and voluntary co-operation, with little or no government. David Friedman's standpoint, known as 'anarcho-capitalism', has attracted a growing following as a desirable social ideal since the first edition of The Machinery of Freedom appeared in 1971. This new edition is thoroughly revised and includes much new material, exploring fresh applications of the author's libertarian principles.
Among topics covered: how the U.S. would benefit from unrestricted immigration; why prohibition of drugs is inconsistent with a free society; why the welfare state mainly takes from the poor to help the not-so-poor; how police protection, law courts, and new laws could all be provided privately; what life was really like under the anarchist legal system of medieval Iceland; why non-intervention is the best foreign policy; why no simple moral rules can generate acceptable social policies -- and why these policies must be derived in part from the new discipline of economic analysis of law.
Customer Reviews:
A most disappointing text.......2007-10-05
Before reading the book, I did not know what a libertarian was beyond a vague idea that he was some kind of extreme right winger. After reading The Machinery of Freedom I still don't know what a libertarian is except for the fact that it is someone whose ideas are a terrific muddle: an anarchist who believes in institutions; an altruist who does not realize that he is an altruist (utilitarian); an anarchist who wants to organize a political party to end all political parties and the list goes on. Apparently a libertarian does not realize that all rights stem from the use of force or the threat of use of force -- if all else fails.
Why Friedman has such a hard time understanding the ownership of land is also a muddle. Land, by itself, is valueless. Value is created by the use and exploitation of the land. The value is created by the work done to it and on it. I believe the legal term for it in English is "improvement" (bienhechuría in Spanish). Once you have made an improvement to the land, the land and the improvement become inseparable and that is how the improver acquires ownership of the land. Imagine an artist walking down a deserted beach in search of driftwood or shells or pebbles with which to create a work of art. How does he acquire ownership of these items? Simply by picking them up because no one else is claiming them. If there were more that one scavenger on the beach, they would have to agree on how to divide up the loot. Hernando de Soto describes in "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else" how this was achieved in early America. David, read that book and discover how you become owner of virgin land.
The discussion of money with a basket of commodities to back it is also a terrific muddle. Again, money is something quite simple that even the simple minds understand. It is only learned people who have such a hard time understanding money. Money is a contract often breached but usually honored. Another book recommendation for David is "Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went" by John Kenneth Galbraith.
Anarchy has been tried before, by socialists in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was an utter failure, the Communists gained the upper hand. I'm an anarchist at heart (a right wing anarchist) but my brain tells me it does not work. A third book suggestion for David: "No Gods No Masters" by Daniel Guerin, a anthology of anarchism.
In summary, The Machinery of Freedom is a most disappointing text.
Tackles the hard question........2007-07-02
This work spends a little time on the basic points of limited government and policies of libertarianism and anarchism. However, most of the work is spent trying to explain the hard questions of national defense and police protection in a stateless society.
David Friedman is successful is laying out the viewpoint of the anarcho-capitalist. The reader may or may not be convinced of the feasibility of his proposals(I wasn't and I bet most people likewise will find his proposals unlikely to succeed.) Nevertheless, the book is well worth the read for the clear and concise way it lays out this difficult political viewpoint.
The book is quick to the point and a quick read. The reader is not inundated with frivolous facts but is given the philosophy in a nutshell, take it or leave it fashion. The author recognizes the shortcomings and instead of dodging the questions meets them head on. For this, he should be commended. The book is a quick read and accessible to anyone and is well worth the read.
A true classic.......2007-06-21
Whether you agree or not with David Friedman, you will learn a lot from reading this book. David doesn't duck any of the hard questions, and even on the most difficult issues, such as eliminating government defense, he will make you think. In the end, even those who oppose what Friedman has written will have a much better understanding of their own positions in the end.
Brilliancy in the line of Mises and Rothbard.......2007-06-08
Dare I say it? Is he not only the heir of those esteemed gentle men, but in fact having not squandered the family millions, he has expanded the business? Yes, he has. I just love the book. Without the all-too-easy examples that all opposing camps would make, but well though-out cases and situations, he strongly makes the case for the market in general, and Capitalism in particular.
Why Buffalo-pucky Rises to the Top, and what to do about it!.......2007-01-25
Friedman's rather utilitarian approach to the issue of public goods shows how government and monopoly work to produce bad law as a public good, saying "It is no more than a slightly exuberant exaggeration to say that a government functions properly only if it is inhabited exclusively by devils"(p 217). He shows how under the monopoly conditions of government, the "worst get on top".
Friedman shows that under the system of corporate statism we all suffer under today, just law is a public good and bad law is really special interest law and can therefore be viewed as a private good. Friedman says that folks spend more time acquiring private goods than they do public goods because the benefit of a private good is whole whereas the benefit of a public good is divided amongst others. As a result, government overproduces bad law and underproduces good law.
Friedman's solution is to bring about conditions where law is bought and sold under market conditions. In that way, the bad law becomes a public good while the good law become a private good. For the reason given in the previous paragraph, Friedman postulates that good law will be overproduced and bad law underproduced.
In this imagined scenario, of course, there are no corporations. Corporations are creations of the state and these artificial persons have no place in a free market.
Book Description
In this revolutionary indictment of capitalism, Joel Kovel criticizes its unrelenting pressure to expand, and its destructiveness toward ecology. Kovel also criticizes existing ecological politics for their evasion of capital, and advances a vision of ecological production as the successor to capitalist production.
Customer Reviews:
full of "use value".......2007-06-02
Joel is driven my his heart but he has the power to convince through his logical argumentation. He is on point and will make you laugh, cry, riot,de-materialize and rethink capitalism every step of the way. If you need a pressing reminder as to why Marx's critique of capital is so critical this book is it.
Great passion and conviction -- terribly written.......2004-06-14
I completely agree with the political agenda of this book. I am glad it was written. Kovel is RIGHT ON TARGET.
But the book was dreadful to plow/bore through. Talk about OBTUSE VERBIAGE. There is still this awful tradition out there that if you wor dsomething so that it "sounds" brilliant -- it must be. I hate that tradition. We need plain language and simple articulation. This book is just the opposite. Here are but a couple of random examples to give you some idea: "Capital's invasion takes place across an ecosystemic manifold encompassing both culture and nature, with points of commodity formation arising everywhere" (p.55) -- got that? or "If 'entropy' is a logarithmic measure of the probabilistic disorder of a given physical system, the Second Law states that for such a system, whether it be the air in a room, a living body, or the earth as a whole, so long as neither energy nor matter is added to said system -- that is, so long as the system is 'closed' -- then its entropy will rise with time" (p.93) -- got that?
Look, there were many times in this book where I wrote "right on!" in the margins. There were also many times whene I wrote "blah blah blah"...I was going to assign this to my students of social theory -- I teach at a small liberal arts college. No way. Very few people can plow through this dense stuff.
Makes a powerful case.......2004-03-28
Anyone who considers themselves an environmentalist should read this book. Kovel makes the case the environmental destruction is inherent to the capitalist system and for the most part, reforms are little more than band-aids for a system that is, by its very nature, out of control.
Kovel focuses less on the environmental problems we face today (which you can find in any other book); and focuses more of the book lies in describing how the nuts and bolts of the capitalist economy works (which is what sets this book apart from all others).
He makes the case that actions like voluntarism, isolated cooperatives, bioregionalism, and so forth will eventually get rolled over by the immense power that capital has and are not long-term solutions.
My only problem with the book is that, while Kovel accurately describes the underlying environmental problem as having its root in capitalism itself, he doesn't present a coherent solution except an extremely vague "eco-socialism" (that's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5). You can tell by this last chapter that he is groping for some sort of answer - going off in many directions.
If you want a cutting analysis of the problem human beings face today, get this book! If you want a revolutionary solution, this book is only a start.
Some background to a flawed but brilliant book.......2003-06-08
For Joel Kovel the revolution is only a matter of time. Marx was right: Capitalism cannot help but prepare the stew in which it will roast. But Old Whiskers got one thing wrong. The crucial antagonist of capital is not labor but nature. If Marx made a fetish of capital's propensity to generate too much wealth to be profitably re-invested, Kovel does the same in regard to planetary ecosystem crackup. Instead of periodic economic downturn catapulting the proletariat into History, it's the shattering of life-essential natural processes that's destined to set off socialist (make that ecosocialist) revolution.
Professor Kovel, who ran to the left of Ralph Nader for the Green Party nod in 2000, wastes no time making the case that capitalism, by its very nature, cannot help but destroy the integrity and well-being of what we call "nature." No need for yet another inventory of disturbances in the environment, our bodies, and our psychic balance (though Kovel does provide a lot of data in this regard). The enemy of nature is not oil or pesticides or factories or bulldozers but capital, "that ubiquitous, all-powerful and greatly misunderstood dynamo that drives our society."
While traditionally the marketplace is a means of exchanging goods for money so as to purchase other goods, under capitalism it becomes a way for those who already have money to accumulate more. Reversing the natural order, the merchant starts off with money and buys the product of someone else's labor, then turns around and sells it at a markup. As long as the laborer is poor and the buyer rich, the trader makes a profit.
What gives a commodity its value is not what we do with it, like using bricks to build houses or shoes to walk home in, but the price it commands in trade. In contrast to "use value"-- a quality that belongs to any given item intrinsically-- "exchange value" is an abstraction that must be expressed quantitatively. When you buy a pair of shoes (or better yet a thousand pairs) only to sell them for profit, their entire value is a number.
As the basis of economics becomes the trade itself and not the tangible thing exchanged, money is transformed into an all-consuming monster. No longer bound up with the limitations of actual land, people, and resources, it springs to life, an abstraction with a will of its own. "Pure quantity," says Kovel, "can swell infinitely without reference to the external world."
There lies the source of our ecological crisis.
Despite its reputation as the very acme of rational economic exchange, capitalism follows its own imperatives, quite apart from the needs of humans and ecosystems. In its compulsion to grow and multiply, capital "constantly tries to violate" whatever limit is set before it. Success means only one thing: surpassing yesterday's mark. No matter how big the beast gets, to cease growing further is to die. Yet the one thing we know for sure is that it can't grow forever. Sooner or later abstraction runs up against reality.
Does that mean capitalism is setting the stage for ecosocialist uprising? "If the argument that capital is incorrigibly ecodestructive and expansive proves to be true, then it is only a question of time before the issues raised here achieve explosive urgency." True enough, but that doesn't mean the Revolution is just over the horizon. What Kovel overlooks is the likelihood that worsening environmental conditions will exacerbate the scarcity that already pits us against each other. While the rich compete to survive as rich people, the poor compete to survive, period. If it's the money-driven struggle of all-against-all that's pushing us, inexorably, to the edge of the cliff, shouldn't we expect rising insecurity and the resulting intensification of this struggle to push us right over the edge? Precisely when, between now and doomsday, do the masses finally revolt?
As Kovel himself points out, capitalists are perfectly willing to perpetuate eco-destabilization as long as they can insulate themselves and perhaps even profit from the meltdown all around them. He cites an article in London's Guardian Weekly purporting to show a shift in elite opinion since the early 70s, when the Club of Rome called for "limits to growth." These days, digging our own grave is simply the ultimate business opportunity.
Taking Kovel to task in the September, 2002 issue of Monthly Review, John Bellamy Foster noted, "We should not underestimate capitalism's capacity to accumulate in the midst of the most blatant ecological destruction, to profit from environmental degradation... and to continue to destroy the earth to the point of no return-- both for human society and for most of the world's living species."
Times are tough? How about a liquidation sale? Like Marx before him, Kovel finds a silver lining where none exists. There's just no pulling the socialist rabbit out of the capitalist hat.
An Ecosocialist Manifesto.......2002-09-26
Joel Kovel's "The Enemy of Nature" offers a powerful and unflinching eco-Marxist critique of the capitalist system. Concluding that the path of accumulation must inevitably lead to a world wide ecological crisis, the author theorizes about the type of "ecosocialist" system that must supplant capitalism in order to ensure humanity's survival.
Kovel is part of a growing "Red/Green" movement that also includes the outstanding Marxist scholar James O'Connor. Kovel's arguments seem to build upon and indeed are closely aligned with many of the ideas in O'Connor's excellent book "Natural Causes," but I personally find Kovel's writing to be a bit more accessible than O'Connor's. Perhaps this pragmatism can be attributed to Kovel's political sensibilities, as he was a candidate for the Green Party Presidential nomination in 2000.
Kovel believes that various forms of so-called "Green economics" are doomed to failure because they do not address what he sees as the root problem driving the ecological crisis: namely, capital's need to continuously expand. He points out that whatever gains might be realized from the introduction of environmentally-friendly technology will be quickly outweighed by the expansion of the economy. For example, fuel cells might be less harmful than internal combustion engines, but if the technology merely enables the manufacture of hundreds of millions of new automobiles, the planet will ultimately be much worse off.
But Kovel acknowledges that the current Green movement is in fact helping to lay the groundwork for what is yet to come. The Green's emphasis on local democratic control of the means of production will help free labor from its bondage with capital, which is essential for socialism to succeed.
Of course, Kovel devotes a section to readers who may need to be reminded that really existing socialism as practiced in the Soviet Union and elsewhere was NOT what Marx intended. Kovel shows that these countries actually substituted the state for the market, in the end merely proving that markets were superior to centralized planning. The ruined environments left behind by the Communist states were testaments to a failed attempt at accumulation, in much the same way that the West is currently degrading the air, land and sea in its ongoing frenzy of accumulation.
Kovel speculates on how collapse might occur in the capitalist nations. He understands that a breakdown of the financial system could easily lead to fascism, or possibly "ecofascism", as capital seeks to hold on to power. But Kovel thinks it may be plausible that the pockets of production growing outside the bounds of capital may be strong enough to resist the counter-revolution. Indeed, Kovel points out that up to 20 percent of the world economy already exists in the "informal" sector, although most of this is comprised of criminal activity and much less of the positive kind (such as the Bruderhof communities of the U.S.).
This latter part of Kovel's analysis bears similarity to Nick Dyer-Witheford's "Cyber-Marx", although Kovel does not appear to be aware of this book nor is it referenced in his bibliography. In short, Dyer-Witheford theorizes that technophiles will appropriate the means of production in order to empower a society that eventually achieves autonomy by existing outside the bounds of capitalist control. Like Kovel, Dyer-Witheford envisions that the post-capitalist society will choose to apply its surplus value to the cause of freeing labor and restoring its ravaged social, physical and natural environments. In my view, the convergence of these two authors' thoughts -- albeit arrived at from different angles, but perhaps more compelling because of this -- bolsters both of their arguments and suggests that the possibility of radical change may not be as elusive as one might suppose.
I strongly recommend Kovel's book for anyone who may be concerned about the future of our society or for those who may be contemplating how a more humane world might come about.
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Haves Without Have-Nots: Essays for the 21st Century on Democracy and Socialism
Mortimer J. Adler
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- The Sane Society - Review
- Excelent book .Pablo Franzani Florida USA
- ecological economics
- Reply to Carlson
- A great criticism though slightly biased
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The Sane Society
Erich Fromm
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Escape from Freedom
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Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics
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The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
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The Art of Loving
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ASIN: 0805014020 |
Book Description
The Sane Society is a continuation and extension of the brilliant psychiatric concepts Erich Fromm first formulated in Escape from Freedom; it is also, in many ways, an answer to Freud's Civilization and its Discontents. Fromm examines man's escape into overconformity and the danger of robotism in contemporary industrial society: modern humanity has, he maintains, been alienated from the world of their own creation. Here Fromm offers a complete and systematic exploration of his "humanistic psychoanalysis." In so doing, he counters the profound pessimism for our future that Freud expressed and sets forth the goals of a society in which the emphasis is on each person and on the social measures designed to further function as a responsible individual.
Customer Reviews:
The Sane Society - Review.......2007-06-27
The Sane Society can be thought of as a summary of Fromm's thoughts on the problems of current society. His main premise is that society can produce 'socially patterned defects' that are so widespread they are seen as normal. For individuals who have more humanistic goals in life, society will inevitably judge them as irrational or insane. So life practices that that detrimental to human development are seen as normal because everyone does it. Fromm moves on to talk about how people have culturally evolved from primitive societies rooted in nature to the current stage where the achievement of a truly humanistic society is within our reach. Blocking progress is the increasing abstractification of life, depriving us of a human perspective on things. We have become slaves to our creations and placed them above humanity, which means we have become things, not people. The means have become more important than the ends. This analysis is interesting as it covers sociology, economics and psychology to give a compelling sketch of recent history. Fromm then moves on to suggest remedies for the increasing insanity in society. We must move towards regarding individuals as unique people who are are not to be exploited. Humanistic socialism can point the way to a more community centred society that wants to realise the potential of humanity and not subjugate them to the need to have, but rather to be.
Excelent book .Pablo Franzani Florida USA.......2007-04-07
Excellent book. In a brilliant thesis Mr. Fromm expose the insanity and violence that comes within our Western Society. He writes about the selfish and blind hunger of "developed countries" (on the name of civilized society) killing and destroying millions for their selfish purpose (reminds me of Iraq war).
This book was written about 50 years ago and still up-to date, I just copied this small paragraph that give an idea about the core of Fromm message:" The western world have created a great material wealth more than any other society in the history of the human race. Yet we have managed to kill of millions of our population in an arrangement, which we call war. During these wars, every participant firmly believes that he was fighting in his self-defense, for his honor, or that he was backed up by God. The groups with whom one is at war are, often from one day to the next, looked upon as cruel irrational fiends whom one must defeat to save the world from evil. But a few years after the mutual slaughter is over the enemies of yesterday are our friends, the friend s of yesterday our enemies, and again in full seriousness we begin to paint them with appropriate colors of black and white. "
Fromm message is a one that should be heard by all human beings: love between neighbors , love in societies , countries and nations, is the only solution to the violence and individualism that is destroying western society, I just think about how much violence we have here in the USA, everything is solved with violence, that's the basic relation that is in the core of this society that supposed to be Christian. the book is a must read and I really recommended it to anyone.
ecological economics.......2007-01-04
A few chapters in, I was concerned the book was too "dated". Fromm does talk a lot about individualism as a fundamental human characteristic, and this can come off as ethnocentric at times (individualism is a Western value, not shared by all cultures to the extent we value it). He also criticizes cultural relativism, seeing it as one of the reasons Western humanity is "insane". Having been an anthropology major in college, this was hard to swallow, but I kept reading. And I was surprised. I found a remarkable similarity in Fromm's book to the some of the tenets of Ecological Economics, or EcolEcon (see Daly & Farley, "Ecological Economics"). For example, Fromm says in the last chapter, "economy must become the servant for the development of man" (p. 314, 4th Fawcett Premier Printing, January 1967); compare this to the EcolEcon tenet that the economy is a subset of the ecosystem and, as such, expansion of the economy should be limited, environmental impacts curbed, so that it does not detract from our quality of life (which depends, ultimately, on a healthy ecosystem).
Towards the end of the book, I was feeling pretty optimistic: about society, the "Western World", and even about some personal decisions I was facing in my life at that time. Even if it is not very good sociology (as some other reviewers contend), The Sane Society is a good book and I recommend it.
Reply to Carlson.......2005-02-02
Just a comment about Mr. Carlson (or Dr. Carlson, if he is a PhD and commodity in the market). Think about how many people you know that suffer of anxiety, depression, insonia, and other psychological problems, or think about the narcissistic people around you. Try to discover how many americans have sleeping problems, high blood pressure, etc. Finally ask yourself why the United States are the world champion of obesity. And then think if you really need more ''quantitative data'' to support Fromm's ideas.
A great criticism though slightly biased.......2004-04-27
The social criticism is awesome. Unfortunately, Fromm missed the simple truth that the unalienated condition depends on connectedness with nature and not on its domination.
Customer Reviews:
Refuting the "new economy" utopians.......2007-02-24
Tony Smith's "Technology and Capital in the Age of Lean Production" is an extremely thorough and detailed analysis of the process of lean production, its comparison to Fordism, the viability of the claims of lean production proponents, and the phenomenon's implications for Marxist theory. Smith goes into astounding detail in describing and analysing the shopfloor nuts and bolts of lean production as well as the ways in which different units of capital interact in this production form, and he shows that it is, indeed, a structurally new way of proceeding compared to the Fordist factory production that has dominated capitalism since the interbellum.
The various chapters are devoted to assessing every aspect of lean production from the perspectives of its supporters and subsequently of Marxist theorists, and this is not limited to just the surface phenomena of the production process - deskilling and globalization are given their due in this book as well. Refuting such silly "new economy" enthousiasts like Florida, Kenney and Womack, political philosopher Tony Smith demonstrates the complete applicability of the Marxist critique of capitalism to each and every real development demonstrable in lean production, and also that the change from Fordism to lean production serves to confirm rather than disprove the expectations of Marx & Engels on the relevant points. The final chapter then provides an alternative way of producing as conceived by Tony Smith, which seems to be basically a form of market socialism, heavily leaning on David Schweickart. Personally I consider market socialism to have significant flaws, but that need not detract from this book's value (and the chapter is rather an aside anyway).
It must be said that this book is written in a rather dry style, especially in the first chapters, and some intermediate knowledge of microeconomics is recommended. The very detail and in-depth discussion of the production processes and the various specialists' commentary on them make for excruciatingly slow reading, so that the just over 150 pages of actual text in this book may take as much as twice the usual time. But if one can find the patience, this book is very rewarding for any radical with an interest in economics.
Good critique of the "new economy".......2001-03-08
Interesting marxian critique of the lean production system. Discusses globalization, skill, just-in-time production. Smith argues that "lean production" is a worthwhile analytical category. He further argues that the claims made for lean production by the "new capitalist utopians" are unfounded, and that lean production modifies capital's antagonisms rather than resolves them.
Rather poor idea of what socialism might be, but you can't expect everything.
Book Description
In Lenin's now classic work Imperialism, he accounts for the increasing importance of the world market in the twentieth century. The concept of imperialism lies at the very heart of Marxist analysis and debate and Lenin offers a prescient scenario of a world shaken by competitive instability, war and crisis, dominated by monopolies, the merging of finance and industrial capital, and fierce territorial competition. It’s relevance is now greater than ever.
Customer Reviews:
Brief Summary and Contemporary Debate.......2006-12-08
The durability of Lenin's Imperialism no doubt owes as much to the stature of the man as to the accomplishment of the work itself. Lenin drew a distinction between the contemporary (late 18th, early 19th century) imperialism of the European great powers and pre-Capitalist imperialism. "Thus, the beginning of the twentieth century marks the turning point at which the old capitalism gave way to the new, at which the domination of capital in general made way for the domination of finance capital." He argued that monopoly had become the inexorable result of the capitalist system, with the concentration of production into vertically integrated enterprises. Moreover, he argued that the banks had come to play a central role in this new system, "instead of being modest intermediaries they become powerful monopolies having at their command almost the whole of the money capital of all the capitalists...". The financiers and the industrialists had now fused into a complex in which the means of production were socialized but the profits remained private.
This pattern of capitalist development within the state, Lenin argued, was also repeated at the international level. "The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the rule of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy; it means the crystallization of a small number of financially "powerful" states from among all the rest." This system was predicated on the export of capital by the great imperialist nations, especially Britain. As financiers in the metropolis sought ever-higher returns, they exported capital across the empire, maintaining peripheral states in subjugation via a system of debenture. Moreover, as the imperialist nations of Western Europe had finally carved up the known world into their respective spheres of interest, the only means by which an imperial power could expand its domain was at the expense of another. Indeed, this is one of the frequently cited explanations for the outbreak of WWI.
What insight does Lenin's work provide for us in the contemporary world? While contemporary Marxists remain enthusiastic about the notion of a periphery of nations held in subjugation by a neo-imperialist center (e.g. Noam Chomsky, (2003), Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, Metropolitan Books), America's categorical shift from creditor to debtor nation represents an awkward empirical anomaly for this theory. However, one does not have to adopt a socialist perspective to be critical of empire; the liberal critique is well presented in the work of Jennifer Pitts (2005) A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
IMPERIALISM REDUX.......2006-11-13
Over the last generation much has been made of the positive effects of the later day `globalization' of the international capitalist markets. By this, I assume, commentators mean that kids in Kansas and kids in Katmandu have equal access to those same pairs of Nike sneakers. Although the outlines of the development of globalization have been known for at least a century, called by less kindly souls like myself- imperialism- apparently the latest devotees of the trend just got the news. Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin analyzed this tendency of international capitalism in 1916 in a little book called Imperialism-the Highest Stage of Capitalism reviewed here. While Lenin's analysis could benefit from a little updating, particularly on the effects of the shift of the industrial labor market away from the high cost metropolitan areas to the former colonial areas in the search for lower wage bills and higher profit margins and the increased role of state intervention in in regulating markets, the basis premises are still sound.
While much of that positive `globalization' rhetoric mentioned above has been overblown- especially concerning its effects on the demise of the nation-state and its replacement by multi-national corporations and a multicultural ethic- the chickens are now starting to come home to roost on the down side of the world political situation. Everyone and their brother and sister, multi-national corporation or local "mom and pop" shoestring operation, is scurrying back to the allegedly safe confines of the nation-state. With their guns drawn. What gives?
What gives is this. The international capitalist system which after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the early 1990's lived in a self-imposed fool's paradise that the contradictions of the system would flatten out on their own and that, in any case, we had reached the best of all possible worlds. There was even some sentiment for one-world government, from quarters not normally known for such flights of fancy. The events of the last several years have graphically disabused the more cutthroat capitalist elements of this notion.
This retrogression to the defenses of nation-states reminiscent of the so-called "Dark Ages" apparently is only the vanguard of what promises to be a much more restrictive world. The ruling classes, however, seem unable to put serious efforts in other types of endeavors. Which takes us back to Lenin. He not only wrote this little book on the tendencies of international capitalism as a piece of analysis but he did it for a reason. And that reason was to demonstrate to the militant leftists of his day that the hitherto for progressive nature of capitalist development had run out of steam and the socialist revolution was on the historic agenda. And he then proceeded to put theory into practice by leading the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. Today, the critics of globalization are much stronger on the effects of the process but weak, very weak, on the way to organize out of the impasse. Lenin knew what to do. Do we?
"...clarifying the world as it is today." .......2005-03-11
This pamphlet by Lenin was first published 90 years ago in the midst of World War I and on the eve of the Russian revolution.
In this work Lenin sets out to achieve two things; first, to give a concise and scientific explanation of the nature of Imperialism and, secondly, to debate the ideas of influential and long time German Social Democratic Party leader Karl Kautsky who, under the pressure of war helped to lead the capitulation of the majority of his party to the side of the German ruling class.
Advocates for social change familiar with arguments on the "left" blaming the cause of the today's ills on various forms of globalisation, - which is meant to represent a more aggressive and rapacious form of imperialism - will find Lenin's polemic against Kautsky invaluable.
Lenin presents a more than convincing case that what we see today is no more than the normal workings of imperialism and therein lays the source of the problem
Taking in Lenin's five principal features of imperialism starting from the first chapters is essential to understanding his discussion with Kautsky near the end of pamphlet. In fact, it goes a long way to clarifying the world as it is today.
Incredible, yet somewhat complicated, work.......2004-07-31
First of all, I would like to address a previous reviewer's "points"...
"Also, like most socialistic propaganda, the whole book has the feel of a out of control conspiracy theory. The capitalists control the state, and any wage increases to workers are bribes to prevent revolution. Furthemore, capitalists conspire to carve up the world between themselves."
It seems as if the writer of that "point" misses the bottom line, which is incredible taking into consideration the fact that corporations have always entered other territories in order to 1) establish a market, 2) strangle the region's attempts at establishing its own monopoly.
There is no "conspiracy" here...you only need to look at the way capitalism naturally functions, understand that monopolies are (usually?) inevitable, and realize that profit supercedes principle. Check anything on the role of corporations in the Third World and watch how domestic economics become "geared" towards debt-repayment, not social construction, and thus remain in a permanent state of backwardness. Regardless, there are "solutions" -- assimilation into capitalist society is one of them. Kinda like, "help our ideology out, and your people can eat." Not much of a "choice," though, no matter the number of earnest pleas to the contrary.
"Of course, history has proven Lenin totally wrong. Furthermore, Lenin invalidated his own thesis. He predicted that the socialist revolution would occur in Germany, getting tired of waiting for his foolish theories to work Lenin led the Russian revolution."
First of all, Lenin did not attempt a revolution because he "could not wait" for the German revolution to take place...he planned to take Russia from the start. As a matter of fact, just as Lenin predicted, a German revolution was not only underway, but erupted as quickly as it was put down by the Social-Democrats that betrayed it. But I guess "history" can be altered and made to look as if these predictions did not come true.
"It's ironic that upon reading the book is that, according to its arguments, Russia should have been one of the last places for the revolt to happen due to its economic backwardness.
Lenin's book is just one more example of the complete failure of socialist rhetoric to translate into reality."
Hmmmm, interesting, and open to interpretation, considering the fact that Lenin and other Marxists have always predicted that revolution will take place during civil unrest and economic backwardness. The depression in Germany was Lenin's basis for his idea regarding the fact that a revolution there was inevitable. Backwardness in Russia -- as well as OBVIOUS unrest -- led to rebellion, and then Lenin's coup.
Note that I said "coup" -- there was no "active rebellion" of the worker against master. Instead, Lenin's approach was quite authoritarian; an elite group of revolutionaries establish themselves OVER the peasants and workers, thus creating the foundation for tyranny.
Which is why I am, by no means, a "Leninist."
Still, Lenin's approach towards revolution should have no impact on the merits of his economic analysis in this book. And, of course, his economic analysis is...impeccable.
Still a Clasic.......2000-03-21
This is one of Lenin's major works. He shows how the economical system of capitalism leads to large contradictions between states and war. A clasic still relevant in theese times of "globalisation" (imperialism).
Customer Reviews:
Babylon and Beyond.......2006-03-01
This is a very enjoyable clear read full of humour and literary reference which explains what anti-capitalists believe and looks at working alternatives to our present economic system. Dr Wall shows that it is pretty much impossible for capitalism to continue without the complete wrecking of the planet unlike Jonathon Porritt who seems to have given up most of his radical green ideas. Babylon and Beyond shows us how community based grassroots economics can be based on social sharing. Here we find Marx for beginners plus billionaire George Soros to radical green localists and reformers. Many alternatives are given This book is a must for all who care about our planet and justice, I strongly urge you to read this book, great photography too.
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