#wertkritik — Public Fediverse posts

Yep, Morozov seems to be absolutely right:

"Benanav dubs his project “a real political economy of technology,” but leaf through the inventory and you’ll find the merchandise has been smuggled in, price tags still attached, from the very warehouse Marx spent his life trying to burn down: efficiency, innovation, trade-offs, even such neoclassical curios as the “vintage problem” and the “production frontier.”

So when he asks why I decline to do that kind of political economy, the answer writes itself: My reading of Marx—partial, perhaps; flawed, possibly—is that the task was to dynamite the categories of political economy, not to embalm them in scholastic amber and slap “realism” on the display case. That a prominent Marxist economist can wield these terms as if they were neutral instruments of reason rather than historical artifacts marinated in capitalist brine tells you something melancholy about the state of the tradition. The tools of the master’s house, lovingly polished and passed off as revolutionary furniture.

Sadly, Benanav knows exactly what he’s doing. In a footnote to his first NLR essay, he explicitly dismisses the work of German value-form theorists—who argue that the categories of political economy (value, money, labor, the firm) are not neutral analytical tools but historically specific forms of capitalist social domination, to be abolished rather than repurposed. He doesn’t mention Moishe Postone—who chided socialists for fetishizing the category of “labor” instead of finding ways to transcend it—nor Simon Clarke—who argued that the categories of political economy, so skillfully dissected by Marx, are not neutral analytical tools passed off as timeless truths but, rather, reified expressions of social relations. We can infer that Benanav would find their work impractical too.
(...)
Consider the value Benanav treats as most self-evidently balanceable: efficiency."

https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/the-socialist-charcuterie-board/
#Marx #Technology #PoliticalEconomy #Wertkritik #Capitalism

"[V]alue is the product of wage labour in a capitalist system, and all the things that this entails. Value is not an ontologically distinct, ‘abstract’ substance, existing in some other plane of reality, birthed into that plane by the demonic machinations of capital. Value – like gravity – is a conceptual representation of a complex process that is difficult for all of us to comprehend.

To repeat: value is not an object, but a process. Many have said this, but the implication I emphasise here is this: if value is not an object, but a process (or set of processes) it cannot be a ‘real abstraction’, insofar as this term is commonly understood to refer to something immaterial. Everything that creates value happens here, in this world, and is explainable within it, without need for reference to a wicked Narnia where a white queen of value coordinates our realm through her interdimensional spyglass."

https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/on-the-bourgeois-concept-of-real-abstraction

#Marxism #CriticalTheory #RealAbstraction #Ontology #WertKritik

Long-term developer without high school qualifications. Lives in the big city but thrives in the forest. Politically active wherever there is movement. Dogmatic across the tables.

General: 40+, extra-parliamentary organizing, #lowtech, #wertkritik, #diy, text adventures and intoxicants

Diagnosis: on the anarcho-primitivist spectrum (Andreas Malm)

#english #introduction

#Marx #Freud #WertKritik #CommodityFetishism #Capitalism #Psychoanalysis #Narcissism: "Jappe recognizes that the crux of Marx’s concept of commodity fetishism is abstraction. Commodity fetishism is often understood to indicate something like consumerism: an overvaluation of a commodity, a consumer product, on the basis of desire that surpasses need or utility. Here the psychosexual connotations of the fetish sneak in the back door and pose as necessary considerations for a Marxist critique.

Marx’s use of the term in Capital Vol. I is meant somewhat ironically, mocking the limitations of the bourgeois intellect to comprehend its own constitutive categories. Marx was familiar with sociological and anthropological uses of the term, in which the fetish is a sensuous thing that takes on the qualities of the deity or deities and thus holds otherworldly power in its concrete form. Exemplary of pre-enlightenment religious animism, and hence an affront to the power of bourgeois instrumental reason over and against nature. Marx’s point is that what has become naturalized, what appears natural, in capitalism, is unreason, specifically manifested in persistent unfreedom in (social, political and economic) crisis, the unresolved and persistent self-contradiction of bourgeois society.

In Capital Vol. 1, Marx says, that ‘[t]he fetishism of commodities arises from the particular social character of the labor that produces them.’ By particular social character, Marx means the historically specific form of social relations in capitalist society, social relations mediated by labor. This appears totally natural and not as historically specific or created. The fetish-character of capital masks the essence of capitalist society as something distinct from its appearance, and hence, as something that can change."

https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/21688_the-self-devouring-society-capitalism-narcissism-and-self-destruction-by-anselm-jappe-reviewed-by-jamie-keesling/

Tomas Konicz on German politics, #fascism as a crisis ideology (not a conspiracy among capitalists), and the connection between the rise of AfD and the demise of German export industry: https://www.konicz.info/2024/05/11/germany-fascism-is-booming/

"The faction of capital that is most resolutely opposed to the AfD’s participation in government is therefore the German large-scale and export-oriented industry. /.../
And it is precisely the German export industry that is currently experiencing a downturn, which actually marks only the beginning of the end of the export-driven German economic model." #wertkritik

Ein okkulter Lese-Sonntag mit Heinrich 😄

#NeueMarxTheorie #Heinrich #Postone #Kapitalismus #Antifa #Wertkritik #Marxismus

Matthew Bolton:
"Climate catastrophe, the ‘Zionist Entity’ and ‘The German guy’: An anatomy of the Malm-Jappe dispute"
https://files.catbox.moe/ue97j5.pdf
#climate #wertkritik #criticaltheory #antisemitism

My dumb believe 😪

(Derived from a previous response)

If you read #Marx #Kapital carefully, in particular with a math background and the #Grundrisse as support, you'll see that after a certain peak of innovation (automatization) the value behind commodities will collapse. Thus also the value of the most general commodity: #Money.

Unfortunately this is denied by those who call themselves #Marxists and thus liberals and further right can piss on it too. Even though #MichaelHeinrich gets the direction he all makes it wrong throughout.

Without money states cannot exist. When #Russia attacks #Ukraine, #Israel kills Kids or #US sends a carrier group to bomb defenseless people and armies, all this has one in common: They fight something strong but actually don't know what to fight.

They all feel the deterioration of statehood, but can neither quantify it nor locate the origins. But a state is composed in a way, that it has to survive.

Marx says, the capital is processing behind the back of the worker. This is a quick explanation where modern #antisemitism comes from. The personification of the decay of our salary in the person of an interest grabbing Jew.

The same way states do personification. Those who risks the states existence, are those who don't pay taxes, #ThePoor. It also correlates with the old enlightened bourgeoise believe, that being poor is caused by genetics and only extermination of the 'degenerates' could solve this issue. (or abstinence )

In fact, behind all this is nothing but a further failing #capital accumulation. This is the unfortunate fact that nobody even wants to listen to. People are way more enthusiastic about depicting a group of evil and exterminate them.

Unfortunately.

In 2006 there was a documentary about the massive buildup of police force throughout #EuropeanUnion. I say this bc. it was before the financial crisis.  A French professor concluded: In the future it might be, that some people might not be satisfiable by the state anymore. Those will fall off our society (!)

But those are not voluntarily dying away. Hence #Hamas and Co.

C'est ça.

This way of thinking is called #Wertkritik or #Wertabspaltungskritik

@sbozanich their analysis follows a #Wertkritik interpretation, and understanding of Marx capital analysis as you can find it in English e.g. from Moishe Postone.

Since I am used to this way of thinking, things in such books may appear obvious to me, where someone with "standard" political or historical knowledge would not easily agree to.

I don't know more about #Lohoff than this book however.

"The #state has no medium of intervention and design of its own; it can only act and maintain itself by using #money and #monetary relations. Dependent on constant blood transfusions, it leads a second-hand life. It cannot continue to exist if the sources of abstract social wealth dry up and taxes and borrowing no longer provide it with its lifeblood in sufficient quantity." - #ErnstLohoff, Der dritte Weg, #Wertkritik, #ValueCritique

Translated with DeepL https://www.deepl.com/app/?utm_source=android&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=share-translation

#Review to #KoheiSaito 'Natur gegen Kapital', 'Nature against #Capital':

I took the moment to read the book fast without remarks and underlining. So the first nice thing, that is absolutely possible. Most evaluations are practical, like historical explanations about the development of modern #agriculture in relation to Marx personal development and the difference between the first #Kapital editions.

Saito starts with #Marx, Engels and #Feuerbach. This part can be understood even though you know few about how crucial Feuerbach was to Marx and what exactly this new german ideology is. Why Feuerbach was crucial, and why Marx finally rejected Feuerbach will be explained to you.

In the following part Saito talks about Entfremdung (alianation) introduces this term in meaning represented by 'Das Kapital', but also Feuerbach and Hegel, and goes ahead with the Japanese school of thought and their particular different interpretation of abstract work, that is according them, found in reality (not just by quanta in time) and has existed before the start of capitalism. This brings you some headakes to keep on understanding some few following chapters, but all in all conclusive.

Even though this interpretation is diametrically to those of #RobertKurz and #MichaelHeinrichs, it come to plenty of similar conclusions and claims to follow the same idea of Heinrichs science of value.

The most interesting part of Saito starts, when he starts following Marx observation towards, at that time contemporary, research of agriculture and how this changed Marx entire cause from an optimist person thinking in linear progress, to someone pessimistic, and later on into an pessimistic optimism, when Marx finally learned about the impact of human made climate change.

And yes, you heard right. A botanic called #Fraas wrote about how Forrest disappearance finally leads to the disappearance of Farming, although trees were remove to make space for farming. His argument was, that the impacting climate in this regions lead to desertification. We talk about mid 19th century science, that caught Marx attention.

Saito is able to increase the wow effect, so you keep on reading. In total a good book, nice to read and some incredible messages inside to a generation, that for some not obvious reasons wants to survive #ClimateChange.

I might later post some of these messages, but would suggest you reading the book instead.

#Wertkritik #ValueCritique #ScienceOfValue

To #KoheiSaito.s book: Nature against Capital.

What #KoheiSaito does not grasp in his short critique of the collapse theory of #ValueCritique, #Wertkritik (#RobertKurz), however, is that the "doggedness of capital" and its dynamics ("elastic potencies") for the reproduction of itself, is not denied, but, according to the value critique, they are the cause of exponentially increasing costs within the scientific capitalist enterprise (development, research), which can only be covered by a total social debt (e.g. public debt), but hardly by an entrepreneurial accumulation. Thus, precisely because of the facts cited by Saito for the refutation of the value critique, capital is already long time processing outside of its actual operational range and must collapse accordingly due to a not realizable recreation of value, according to the value critique. This can be continued (simulated) only as long as the socialization of debts can be maintained with the simultaneous privatization of profits.***

Although Saito admits that he has not even considered the theory of value necessary for this conclusion, he already indicates with the unquestioned adoption of Burkett's quote that his understanding of value comes precisely from #MichaelHeinrichs and is thus diametrically opposed to Kurz's interpretation. Meanwhile, he does little to shake the value critique itself.

Still, the book is well worth reading, and I haven't quite finished it yet either. So maybe he'll still get his act together 😉.

*** For example, Germany's debt today will last until almost 2075, so we have to work for another 52 years to recoup the money we've already spent. In 2030, for example, it could already take until 2150 and in 2050 until the year 2200 or even 2300. It is obvious that this cannot be maintained endlessly. Countries like Haiti for instance can not rely on such a process of eternally raising debts, to maintain production of goods within entire social (worldwide) average costs, so that they necissarily loose an economic basis and collapse.

Zu #KoheiSaito.s Buch: Natur gegen Kapital

Was #KoheiSaito an seiner kurzen Kritik der Zusammenbruchstheorie der #Wertkritik (#RobertKurz) allerdings nicht erfasst, ist das die "Verbissenheit des Kapitals" und seine Dynamik ("elastische Potenzen") zur Reproduktion seiner selbst, nicht etwa geleugnet wird, sondern nach der Wertkritik eben Verursacher für exponentiell steigende Kosten innerhalb des wissenschaftlichen kapitalistischen Betriebes (Entwicklung, Forschung) darstellen, die nur noch durch eine soziale Gesamtverschuldung (zum Beispiel Staatsschulden) kaum aber noch durch eine unternehmerische Akkumulation gedeckt werden können. Somit prozessiert das Kapital eben genau wegen des von Saito zur Widerlegung der Wertkritik angeführten Sachverhalts schon lange außerhalb seines eigentlichen Arbeitsbereich und muss entsprechend an einer nicht mehr realisierbaren Verwertung des Werts kollabieren, so die Wertkritik. Dies kann nur solange fortgeführt (simuliert) werden, solange die Sozialisierung von Schulden bei gleichzeitiger Privatisierung von Profiten aufrecht gehalten werden kann.***

Obwohl Saito zugibt, die zu dieser Feststellung notwendige Lehre des Werts noch gar nicht betrachtet zu haben, deutet er mit der unhinterfragten Übernahme des Zitats von Burkett schon an, dass sein Verständnis des Werts eben von #MichaelHeinrichs stammt und somit der kurz'schen Interpretation diametral entgegensteht. An der Wertkritig selbst rüttelt er derweil wenig.

Das Buch ist aber trotzdem sehr lesenswert und ich bin auch noch nicht ganz fertig. Also vielleicht kriegt er ja noch die Kurve. 😉

*** zum Beispiel Reicht die Verschuldung Deutschlands heute bis nahezu 2075, wir müssen also noch 52 Jahre arbeiten um das jetzt schon ausgegebene Geld wieder reinzuholen. 2030 könnte es zum Beispiel schon bis 2150 dauern und 2050 bis ins Jahr 2200 oder gar 2300. Es ist offensichtlich, dass das nicht endlos aufrecht erhalten werden kann. Länder wie Haiti zum Beispiel können sich nicht darauf verlassen, dass ein solcher Prozess der ewigen Verschuldung die Produktion von Gütern innerhalb der gesellschaftlichen (weltweiten) Durchschnittskosten aufrechterhält, so dass sie zwangsläufig ihre wirtschaftliche Basis verlieren und zusammenbrechen.

@Loukas 100 % agree that capitalism is not the creation of one certain class and that its abolition cannot be thought as the triumph of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie.
#wertkritik

"I am an avid reader of #operaismo and of pre-Empire Negri, and also at the opposite end, the #Wertkritik school, in my view the best heirs to #Critical #Theory (Hans-Georg Backhaus, Helmut Reichelt, Michael Heinrich, but also the unruly genius, #Robert #Kurz, and the “cult” periodicals of this tendency, Krisis, Streifzüge, Exit!) /…/
The greatest impact came, however, from #Moishe #Postone’s magnum opus."
– Gáspár Miklós Tamás

@atompunkray @politicalscience #Marx #Marxism #WorkingClass issues according #ValueCriticism #Wertkritik 🤔 don't find it under this hashtag??? Weired.

@atompunkray @politicalscience #Marx #Marxism #WorkingClass issues according #ValueCriticism #Wertkritik

Time for my #introduction!

Among many other things, I am a #historian (PhD) & #economichistorian (#Stockholm university), mostly 20th & 21th century. Right now finishing a book on the history of price statistics (quality adjustments in the consumer price index). Previous books on Spotify and the political economy of music. Anyway, I did not really come here to be one of the #Histodons on #AcademicMastodon.
I also write non-academic stuff.

Sometimes I play music on #woodwind instruments; member of #MedievalMusic group Vox Vulgaris.

Appreciator of underground dance music, and of adventurous sounds in general.

Once I was involved in The Bureau for #Piracy (the group that started The Pirate Bay) and ever since I have been writing on internet politics, whatever that means today. Appreciator of Soulseek and Aaaaarg; curious about the #fediverse; contemptful of "web3".

Probably not a "Marxist" but, yeah, I am indeed deep into #Marx, #CriticalTheory, #ValueFormTheory and #Wertkritik.
Probably not an "activist" either. I just want to somehow abolish the capitalist mode of production, and some other shit. Right now involved in a network for solidarity with #Ukraine.

Tooting in Swedish + English, reading German, struggling to learn Russian.

Слава Україні 🌻

Mångårig utvecklare utan gymnasiekompetens. Bor i storstaden men trivs i skogen. Politiskt aktiv där det rör på sig. Dogmatiker över borden.

Allmänt: 40+, utomparlamentarisk organisering, #lowtech, #wertkritik, #diy, textäventyr och rusdrycker

Diagnos: på det anarko-primitivista spektrumet (Andreas Malm)

#svenska #swedish #introduction