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The unquenchable blood thirst of capitalism

Danish capitalism. Breakthrough, greatness and stagnation
Forfatter: Anders Lundkvist
Forlag: Forlaget Hovedland (Danmark)
Crises are just what capitalism needs. What, then, is smarter than dealing with disasters when the system stagnates? 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

After reading my way through 200 school cuddly, incredibly dusty and boring pages in Danish capitalism, I'm almost giving up. History of business cycles, prices, and an endless array of tables can take a crack at anyone. I'm in the desert and need water!

Then comes the flowing, as from heaven: "Neither life nor death? Capitalism's internal contradictions, that is, its masochistic tendency to destroy itself, is nothing new, so far it has always found a solution, ”Lundkvist writes. Suddenly, the book is in a highly current debate about the future of capitalism. Numerous are the intellectuals who are currently predicting the West's impending doom. Wolfgang Streck, who appears to be a hateful anti-capitalist, is one of them. Of course, the destructive sides of capitalism are also linked to other dimensions, such as ecology and the future of the earth. One of the more interesting contributors in this field is Gaia theory author James Lovelock, who is very skeptical of what sustainable development really means for the future of the earth. But with him the political aspect is muted.

The hunger of capitalism may be reminiscent of the thirst of a blood-drinking vampire: Every time it is dried up, it must drink the blood of others.

Requires crises. How has capitalism made it through the crises so far? What solutions did it adopt? What have been its life-giving injections? Capitalism can be reminiscent of the thirst of a blood-drinking vampire: Every time it is dried up, it must drink the blood of others. The industrial revolution was such a "party", where blood was the drug, and the same must be said about colonialism and imperialism. In the last century, two world wars took place, where armor and mass death gave the capitalism vampire some wonderful thirsty years. The total destruction of countries such as Germany and Japan also caused the system to flourish. Then the ghost of communism emerged, causing the United States to sprinkle money on all non-communist countries. After World War II, Norway also became a small Dracula.

Permanent or transient crisis states are precisely what capitalism needs. What, then, is more obvious than dealing with disasters when capitalism stagnates – indirectly by not preparing for natural disasters, or simply provoking the disasters themselves? This has the most important voice on the left, Naomi Klein, written long and thoroughly.

Not life, not death. "Stagnation and capitalism are an unfortunate pair," Lundkvist writes, "because capitalism involves maximizing profits and thus eternal growth." And he asks: 'Does the capitalist mode of production have an expiry date anyway? Like feudalism, for example? " The earth will not last forever, nor will humanity. Everything has an expiration date, including capitalism. But indirectly, Lundkvist asks: If humanity survives the collapse of capitalism, what comes after this economic system?

Capitalism has been characterized by stagnation in recent years. The banking crisis in 2008 did not become the vitamin injection many had hoped for. The neoliberal economist Larry Summers has predicted a longer period of capitalist decline, while Wolfgang Streeck says capitalism is dying. However, the latter is mistaken when he writes that there still exists a working class ready to take over the means of production and introduce communism; this is wishful thinking. Streeck writes like with a blindfold, and his fingers fall on the keyboard. There is no suppressed class that wants to push a new system. The new precariat has no overall consciousness of being held down, and no class consciousness at all. The new precariat is simply not a class, but rather a group of temporary employees with no common goal. "We should expect no dramatic collapse, rather a state of neither life nor death," Lundkvist writes.

Unfortunately, after presenting this scenario, the book becomes as boring as it was initially. It bears back to the tables and the endlessly thirsty explanations of the "Fogh Government rescue package" and "the changes in the labor market".

"All in all, it can't be ruled out that capitalism is about to die." 

In anticipation of the crises. Capitalist developments in Denmark are on the brink, and alternatives to capitalism have been weakened after the neo-liberal period broke through. The old alternative was the working class takeover of the means of production; the new alternative, Lundkvist writes, is to democratize the entire economy, including by strengthening the public sector.

But back to the question of the possible expiration date of capitalism. Anders Lundkvist responds like this: "All in all, it cannot be ruled out that capitalism is about to be killed," he writes.

As the good economist he obviously is (but author he is not), he explains to us that continued quantitative easing, ie continued subsidization of financial capital, only contributes to postponing the final crisis. He also claims, like many others, that the euro was a fallacy that is just waiting to collapse. These are among the foreseeable crises.

Then they all come unpredictable the crises – those that do not have a clear start or end date, such as the climate crisis, rising migrations from poor countries and major political tensions between the US, China and Russia. Anders Lundkvist, despite his limited writing abilities, manages to air important questions between all the dry numbers. Certain politicians might benefit from reading this book.

Henning Næs
Henning Næss
Literary critic in MODERN TIMES.

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