WHAT IF THE DIALECTIC IS BAD FOR THE PROLETARIAT

Marx's description of the dialectic in history is a not very heavily disguised lift from Hegel. It sounds persuasive. At any momemnt a society is defined by relations between classes. But these classes are not static (marx's real insight.) There's always one on the way up and one on the way down in the post-Classical western world. Feudalism is run by a warrior aristocracy. Under the pressure of a rising class of merchants who acquire money, feudal society gives way to bourgeois society run by capitalists.
Conrary to what his vulgar critics think, Marx LOVES capitalists. They break up the old stagnant order, generate huge investment and progress and are what makes the next step possible.
For Marx, likke most millenarians, that next step is the final step. It is the rise of the proletariat which at some point is powerful and resentful enough to overthrow the capitalist system.
But suppose the dialectic is different. Suppose there is a new class that Marx had not thought about which will actually be the next to take over.
One weakness in Marx's view is that he doesn't really take on board technological progress as opposed to capitalists using technology. This is less excusable for him than it it for Adam Smith writing over 50 years before. And it's a huge gap.
Because a great source of wealth and power comes from the intellectual property which generates Microsoft and the biotech companies and the royalties which Paul McCartney gets every time somebody legally gets a copy of his music or Manchester United earn on a replica shirt.
These people, not the working class have been the big winners of the past 20 years. For the fragmnentation of the production process means that you can design jeans in Paris, make them in China and sell them in New York. All those process except the design have been commodified. The spread of the WTO has meant that counties with cheap labour have decided to respect international agreements on intellectual property. And the US has seen an unholy alliance of lawyers and inventors spread the concept of intellectual property much further than ever before.
So the new class are the inventors and the enforcers, ticking up money every time anyone buys their wares.
MORE to come on this

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truffaut

Director:

* 1980s #director1980
* 1970s #director1970
* 1960s #director1960
* 1950s #director1950

1. Vivement dimanche! /title/tt0086551/ (1983)
... aka Confidentially Yours (USA)
... aka Finally, Sunday
2. Femme d'à côté, La /title/tt0082370/ (1981)
... aka The Woman Next Door (UK) (USA)
3. Dernier métro, Le /title/tt0080610/ (1980)
... aka The Last Metro (International: English title)

4. Amour en fuite, L' /title/tt0078771/ (1979)
... aka Love on the Run (Canada: English title) (USA)
5. Chambre verte, La /title/tt0077315/ (1978)
... aka The Green Room (USA)
... aka The Vanishing Fiancée (USA)
6. Homme qui aimait les femmes, L' /title/tt0076155/ (1977)
... aka The Man Who Loved Women (USA)
7. Argent de poche, L' /title/tt0074152/ (1976)
... aka Pocket Money (International: English title: literal title)
... aka Small Change (USA)
8. Histoire d'Adèle H., L' /title/tt0073114/ (1975)
... aka The Story of Adele H (USA)
9. Nuit américaine, La /title/tt0070460/ (1973)
... aka Day for Night (USA)
... aka Effetto notte (Italy)
... aka The American Night (International: English title: literal
title)
10. Une belle fille comme moi /title/tt0069442/ (1972)
... aka A Gorgeous Bird Like Me
... aka A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (Australia: DVD box title)
... aka Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me
11. Deux anglaises et le continent, Les /title/tt0066989/ (1971)
... aka Two English Girls (Canada: English title) (USA: cut version)
... aka Anne and Muriel (UK)
... aka Deux anglaises, Les (France: reissue title)
... aka Two English Girls and the Continent (International:
English title: informal literal title)
12. Domicile conjugal /title/tt0065651/ (1970)
... aka Bed & Board (Canada: English title) (USA)
... aka Bed and Board (UK)
... aka Non drammatizziamo... è solo questione di corna! (Italy)
13. Enfant sauvage, L' /title/tt0064285/ (1970)
... aka The Wild Boy (UK)
... aka The Wild Child (USA)

14. Sirène du Mississipi, La /title/tt0064990/ (1969)
... aka Mia droga si chiama Julie, La (Italy)
... aka Mississippi Mermaid (USA)
15. Baisers volés /title/tt0062695/ (1968)
... aka Stolen Kisses (USA)
16. Mariée était en noir, La /title/tt0061955/ (1968)
... aka The Bride Wore Black (Australia) (UK) (USA)
... aka Sposa in nero, La (Italy)
17. Fahrenheit 451 /title/tt0060390/ (1966)
18. Peau douce, La /title/tt0058458/ (1964)
... aka Angústia (Portugal)
... aka The Soft Skin (USA)
19. Amour à vingt ans, L' /title/tt0055747/ (1962) (segment "Antoine
et Colette")
... aka Amore a vent'anni, L' (Italy)
... aka Hatachi no koi (Japan)
... aka Liebe mit zwanzig (West Germany)
... aka Love at Twenty (USA)
... aka Milosc dwudziestolatkow (Poland)
20. Jules et Jim /title/tt0055032/ (1962)
... aka Jules and Jim (UK) (USA)
21. Antoine et Colette /title/tt1180329/ (1962)
22. Une histoire d'eau /title/tt0052338/ (1961) (co-director)
... aka A Story of Water
23. Tire-au-flanc 62 /title/tt0167460/ (1960)
... aka The Army Game (USA)
... aka The Sad Sack (International: English title)
24. Tirez sur le pianiste /title/tt0054389/ (1960)
... aka Shoot the Pianist (UK)
... aka Shoot the Piano Player (Canada: English title)

25. Quatre cents coups, Les /title/tt0053198/ (1959)
... aka The Four Hundred Blows (Canada: English title) (UK) (USA)
... aka The 400 Blows (USA)
26. Mistons, Les /title/tt0050714/ (1957)
... aka The Brats (UK)
... aka The Kids (USA)
... aka The Mischief Makers
27. Une visite /title/tt0048766/ (1955)

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

This blog has been launched as the world's markets lurch downwards, undoing years of excess in months or weeks. The main current task for governments is to stop the slide and stabilise the situation. After over a year of hesitation, they have begun to address that task. We don't know how easy they will find it.
But once stabilisation has been achieved, the next problem will be to get the economy growing without repeating the speculative excesses of the past. Those excesses weren't necessary for economic growth, however much the PR men for the financial markets may claim they were. They were the outcome of a political philosophy and of greed. In many case the political philosophy was greed.
John Blunt was the genius behind the Sword Blade Company. And the Sword Blade Company was the genius behind the South Sea Bubble.
"Prevention Is Better" has succeeded in making contact with John Blunt from beyond the grave. In the coming weeks he promises to spell out the lessons he learned from the financial crisis of his day and how they apply to the modern world. All of the things which have caused so much trouble today were there in outline in the South Sea Company and its associated activities. It took something like 40 years to recover from that. We will see how long this latest disaster takes.