Late Capitalism

[rich]

who actually is innocent, though. Much of the 'system' is so much alchemy,
far removed from growth in the general sense. One big gambling den, rigged
by maths PhDs. we all sponge off the system, how else to survive. But for
many of us, we are enjoying our lives, hardly' just surviving'. The system
provides. But a system implies a geography, a building, something tangible.
There isn't anything tangible about the system. Those who want to see it
die, overthrown, are deluded. Those who believe in the system are equally
deluded. There is nothing to control, only tweaked at a miniscule level of
what we perceive to be high intelligence.
In effect, no one wants to rip that creature off their face. Maybe it'll
all come crashing down. Maybe not. Art can only suggest. It isn't innocent,
either

rich

On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 12:14 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> The System may or may not understand that it’s only buying time. And that
> time is an artificial resource to begin with, of no value to anyone or
> anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death,
> when its addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can
> supply, dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life. Living
> inside the System is like riding across the country in a bus driven by a
> maniac bent on suicide… though he’s amiable enough, keeps cracking jokes
> back through the loudspeaker…” —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
>
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 11:30 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>
> > Good point and applicable to many semantic issues. Every generation has a
> > tendency to think they are at some kind of apex. I think the term late
> > capitalism as used currently  is more predictive than descriptive and may
> > of course prove completely wrong through reform or some other event.
> > I see it more as acknowledging that the Titanic has received a mortal
> blow
> > and is going down. That this current arrangement is physically,
> > biologically, and socially unsustainable.  I wonder what late capitalism
> > means to other readers.
> >
> > > On Nov 9, 2021, at 10:37 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Let’s get more specific:
> > >
> > > Inherent in the current use of the term, “late capitalism,” is a
> critique
> > > of observed problems of the modern practices of capitalism.  But the
> term
> > > isn’t new:
> > >
> > > “ The term "late capitalism" was first used by Werner Sombart
> > > <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Sombart> in his magnum opus
> Der
> > > Moderne Kapitalismus, which was published from 1902 through 1927, and
> > > subsequent writings; Sombart divided capitalism into different stages:
> > > (1) proto-capitalist society from the early middle ages up to 1500 AD
> > > (2) early capitalism in 1500–1800
> > > (3) the heyday of capitalism from 1800-1914(WW1)
> > > (4) late capitalism: 1914 until today.”
> > >
> > > “The term late capitalism began to be used by socialists in continental
> > > Europe towards the end of the 1930s and in the 1940s, when many
> > economists
> > > believed capitalism was doomed.”
> > >
> > > At the heart of the term is the question of whether current problems
> are
> > > due to abuses and corruptions of the system, or whether the problems
> are
> > > inherent to the system.  Another question is about the nature of
> reforms
> > or
> > > regulations that make capitalism a hybrid system.  Is a Reformed/Hybrid
> > > Capitalism still “Late Capitalism?”
> > >
> > > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism
> > > Modern usage of the phrase and further evolutionEdit
> > > <
> >
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_capitalism&action=edit&section=4
> > >
> > >
> > > According to a 2017 article in The Atlantic
> > > <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic>, the term "late
> > capitalism"
> > > is again in vogue to describe modern business culture, although with a
> > > semantic change or an ironic twist. "Late capitalism" has become a
> > > catch-all term for various phenomena that express capitalism's
> > distortions
> > > of human life, and it is often used in critique and satire. This usage
> > also
> > > conveys a sense that contemporary capitalism cannot go on like it does
> > > forever, because the problems created by business are getting too large
> > and
> > > unmanageable.
> > >
> > > The phrase “late stage capitalism” is used commonly as a critique of
> the
> > > fascistic qualities that emerge in the later stages of capitalism.
> > > Capitalism to many may seem to be free of this exploitation if not
> taken
> > to
> > > the extremes of “late capitalism”. A competing viewpoint is that
> > > “Capitalism, in its orthodoxy, is a system that relies on
> authoritative,
> > > controlling, and exploitative relationships, most notably between that
> of
> > > capitalists and workers”, and that this is not something that emerges
> out
> > > of a devolving system but rather is present in the framework of the
> > system
> > > itself.
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> >
> >
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>