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'The Language of Capitalism Isn't Just Annoying, It's Dangerous' (theoutline.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: When General Motors laid off more than 6,000 workers days after Thanksgiving, John Patrick Leary, the author of the new book Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism, tweeted out part of GM CEO Mary Barra's statement. "The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient, and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future," she said. Leary added a line of commentary to of Barra's statement: "Language was pronounced dead at the scene." Why should we pay attention to the particular words used to describe, and justify, the regularly scheduled "disruptions" of late capitalism? Published this month by Haymarket Books, Leary's Keywords explores the regime of late-capitalist language: a set of ubiquitous modern terms, drawn from the corporate world and the business press, that he argues promulgate values friendly to corporations (hierarchy, competitiveness, the unquestioning embrace of new technologies) over those friendly to human beings (democracy, solidarity, and scrutiny of new technologies' impact on people and the planet).
These words narrow our conceptual horizons -- they "manacle our imagination," Leary writes -- making it more difficult to conceive alternative ways of organizing our economy and society. We are encouraged by powerful "thought leaders" and corporate executives to accept it as the language of common sense or "normal reality." When we understand and deploy such language to describe our own lives, we're seen as good workers; when we fail to do so, we're implicitly threatened with economic obsolescence. After all, if you're not conversant in "innovation" or "collaboration," how can you expect to thrive in this brave new economy? [...] Calling our current economic system "late capitalism" suggests that, despite our gleaming buzzwords and technologies, what we're living through is just the next iteration of an old system of global capitalism. In other words, he writes, "cheer up: things have always been terrible!" What is new, Leary says, quoting Marxist economic historian Ernest Mandel, is our "belief in the omnipotence of technology" and in experts. He also claims that capitalism is expanding at an unprecedented rate into previously uncommodified geographical, cultural, and spiritual realms.
These words narrow our conceptual horizons -- they "manacle our imagination," Leary writes -- making it more difficult to conceive alternative ways of organizing our economy and society. We are encouraged by powerful "thought leaders" and corporate executives to accept it as the language of common sense or "normal reality." When we understand and deploy such language to describe our own lives, we're seen as good workers; when we fail to do so, we're implicitly threatened with economic obsolescence. After all, if you're not conversant in "innovation" or "collaboration," how can you expect to thrive in this brave new economy? [...] Calling our current economic system "late capitalism" suggests that, despite our gleaming buzzwords and technologies, what we're living through is just the next iteration of an old system of global capitalism. In other words, he writes, "cheer up: things have always been terrible!" What is new, Leary says, quoting Marxist economic historian Ernest Mandel, is our "belief in the omnipotence of technology" and in experts. He also claims that capitalism is expanding at an unprecedented rate into previously uncommodified geographical, cultural, and spiritual realms.
I'm sorry, we've given capitalism enough tries and the exotic idea of free market capitalism does not exist. The only reason most people are not begging is because there are some laws preventing the crony capitalists from extracting every ounce of flesh.
all seem to be doing fine. Kind of helps that they're not currently under massive US Sanctions for little to no reason (except oil money).
Seriously, what we do to all of the Southern continent with our foreign police really pisses me off. We wreck their economies and governments and then we bitch that refugees from the disasters we caused come up her and take our jerbs.
Wanna solve these refugee problems: Stop interfering with and overthrowing their populist, left wing governments, stop wrecking their attempts to Unionize (I'm looking at you Coke) and end the bloody Drug War. Their countries will recover and modernize and we'll see an end to the flood of illegal immigrants.
You know, I've never heard the German's claim they're being overrun by cheese eatin' surrender monkeys. Just sayin'
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What communist dog slashdot editor approved this nonsense
Whenever one of these people uses the buzzword “late capitalism,” it’s your cue that some economic illiterate who has never studied history thinks that capitalism is about to be replaced by unicorns. This, after all, worked so well in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
The humanities typically include black and feminist theory courses, often with an emphasis on oppression by white male European decedents.
I strongly suggest that you read more about the lived experiences of being a woman, a black person , or a black woman in the US. These groups continue to experience real trauma due to many deeply ingrained patterns in society. Chances are (because this is /.), you are (like me) a white male, so you are likely not even aware of what life can be like for people who don't look like you.
look no further than the variety of violent protests to conservative speakers
These violent actions are inexcusable. The violent actions tend to be the acts of a relatively small section of extremist assholes that do not represent the whole.
merely that someone they disagree with was coming to speak on campus and thus they protested
Many of these protests are centered around speakers who aren't "merely" disagreeing with people. Often, these speakers are coming to advocate viewpoints that systematically deny basic humanity the large swaths of people. The analogy is deeply flawed, but it would be like if I went to a Christian college and wanted to present a talk entitled, "Jesus is an Asshole."
Not all opinions are equal and deserve equal weight in discussions. Some should be shouted down in protest.