Aufhebunga Bunga
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/313/ Consolation-Prize Marxism & the Bunga-Bunga State ft. Dylan Riley
🕑 Added 2023-01-10 07:00:03 +0000 UTCOn political capitalism and social justice.
We continue our interview with Dylan Riley, discussing the limitations of ‘social justice’. Both woke and social-democratic demands today hinge on a notion of fairness. How realistic is it to petition the state to apportion justice in this way?
Together with Robert Brenner, Dylan Riley has advanced the thesis that we are entering an age of 'political capitalism' in which the state becomes central for guaranteeing the rate of return. How convincing is this thesis – and if it's true, does it make social justice appeals more or less relevant?
The interview is followed by the After Party in which we debate these questions in more depth.
Readings:
- Microverses: Observations from a Shattered Present, Dylan Riley, Verso Books
- Seven Theses on American Politics, Dylan Riley & Robert Brenner, NLR
- Inflection Point (podcast), Dylan Riley & Robert Brenner, UC Berkley
- Safe Substitutes for Posting: review of Microverses, Harold Florida, Damage
Comments
John O'Riordan
I really enjoyed this but when has capitalism not been political? I’m thinking as far back as inclosure acts or various state backed/ enforced monopolies like east India company royal Africa company etc etc
Eli S
I'm not really sure I understood everything in this interview, so I hope nobody minds if I sound like I'm just asking after one of my regular hobby-horses again. How could the case for a transformation into "political capitalism" accommodate or intersect with an account of changes in the energy system? If there's a shift from production to extraction/expropriation, can we see that as driven, perhaps, by genuine difficulties in physically fueling and supplying industrial production? Circling back to politics a little, would this then lead us to a need for a radical, socialist/communist approach to the new center-left fad for "supply-side progressivism"?
