Image by Chris Beckett via Flickr
theRSAorg | May 6, 2010
Marxist geographer David Harvey asks: is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
RSA ANIMATE: Crises of Capitalism
theRSAorg on Jun 28, 2010
In this RSA Animate, celebrated academic David Harvey looks beyond capitalism towards a new social order. Can we find a more responsible, just, and humane economic system?
Updated: Aug. 17, 2014
RSA Replay – The Contradictions of Capitalism
theRSAorg | Apr 9, 2014
One of the world’s most respected public thinkers visits the RSA to explore the hidden workings of capital. David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate School, unravels the paradoxes at the heart of capitalism and offers a manifesto for a new way forward.
Chair: Matthew Taylor, RSA chief executive.
from the archives:
Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger (must-see)
Pingback: Chris Hedges and David Harvey: The Ideology of Neoliberalism is a Con, Part 2 – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chris Hedges and David Harvey: The Ideology of Neoliberalism is a Con – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: David Harvey: The Crises of Capitalism – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: I’m Sick and Tired of This Thing Called Patriotism – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chris Hedges and David Harvey: Enough is Enough of This Capitalist Fraud – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: David Harvey: What is Neoliberalism? – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Slavoj Zizek: The marriage between capitalism and democracy is over « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Bob Avakian: What is capitalism? + Isn’t the problem human nature? (2003) « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Life vs. Productivity: “What Would You Live and Die to Protect?” by Dahr Jamail « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Capitalism: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: 2010: Humanity’s Choice as Foreseen by Rudolf Steiner By Richard C. Cook « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: LeiLani Dowell: Imperialism at home and abroad: Policy or system of exploitation? « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: What is Socialism? (archive of posts) « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: What Would Socialism Be Like? by Leela Yellesetty « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: New Pledge of Allegiance: Rendezvous with Colonial “Join or Die” By Robert S. Becker « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Webster Tarpley: The Collapse of Europe As the Second Phase In Two World Depressions « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Webster Tarpley: Obama Plans Lame Duck Sell-Out of Social Security « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: The Meaning of Austerity by James Corbett « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Europe’s Banking Crisis: Latvia’s Third Option by Prof. Michael Hudson « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Andrew Gavin Marshall: The American empire is in decline, but the military spending is not following suit « Dandelion Salad
Consumers are mostly people who depend on a wage paid to them by capitalists (ie, they are workers). The maldistribution of wealth and income that Harvey correctly attributes to capitalists can be countered by organised labour; but it can also be countered by organised *consumers*, who are mostly the same people. Surely both of these social forces should be forged together as a weapon of class war against capital?
Pingback: I’m sick and tired of this thing called “patriotism” by William Blum « Dandelion Salad
Hmm … according to “Think & Grow Rich” (Napoleon Hill), Capitalism is the system that allows the millions of dollars of globe-spanning work involved in a small breakfast in central New York to only cost the eating New Yorkers a few dollars … he might’ve said “no other system can possibly accomplish such a feat!”
Where it goes wrong is if you ‘seek ye first the kingdom of thine own’ (rather than ‘the Kingdom of God/Shiva/FlyingSpagettiMonster’) Because ‘seeking to build-up your own kingdom’ in today’s jungle means ‘seeking to knock down any name other than yours.’
All the money you’re given should go toward ‘making yourself a clearer conduit of service from your source(s) to the consumer-public.’ Unfortunately, that purpose gets sharpened wrong; it SHOULD get sharpened in the direction of ‘clearer conduit of service’ but gets sharpened to ‘making yourself’ instead.
Long back J.M. Keynes declared:”Essays in Persuasion in The End of Laissez-Faire:
“Let us clear from the ground the metaphysical or general principles upon which, from time to time, laissez-faire has been founded. It is not true that individuals possess a prescriptive “natural liberty” in their economic activities. There is no compact conferring perpetual rights on those who Have or on those who Acquire. The world is not so governed from above that private and social interest always coincide. It is not so managed here below that in practice they coincide. It is not a correct deduction from the Principles of Economics that enlightened self-interest always operates in the public interest. Nor is it true that self-interest generally is enlightened; more often individuals acting separately to promote their own ends are ignorant or too weak to attain even these. Experience does not show that individuals, when they make up a social unit, are always less clear-sighted than when they act separately.”
This is the politics and economics of social justice. And hence it was natural for the Father of the Indian Nation, Mahatma Gandhi to give a dire warning:
“Economic equality is the master key to non-violent revolution. A non-violent system of government is clearly an impossibility so long as the wide gulf between the rich and hungry millions persists.The contrast between the palaces of New Delhi and the miserable hovels of the poor, labouring class cannot last one day in a free India in which the poor will enjoy the same power as the richest in the land. A violent and bloody revolution is certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power that riches give and sharing them for the common good.”
Please see my blog: Whither Globalisation?Published in Countercurrents.org 22 February, 2007
http://www.countercurrents.org/gl-patil220207.htm
Thanks for your comment, Bal Patil and for the link to your post. Excellent work.