Book Excerpt: On Instrumental Reason.

"The kind of rationality that drives the modern scientific, economic, and technological revolutions - instrumental or administrative reason (herrschaftwissen) - is only one kind of knowledge, knowledge for the sake of power, profit, and control. Unlike the type of rationality that is critical, ethical, communicative, and dialogical in nature, the goal of instrumental reason is to order, categorize, control, exploit, appropriate, and commandeer the physical and living worlds as means toward designated ends. Accordingly, this general type of reason—a vivid example of what Nietzsche diagnoses as the Western “will to power”—dominates the outlook and schemes of scien-tists, technicians, capitalists, bureaucrats, war strategists, and social scientists. Instrumental knowledge is based on prediction and control, and it attains this goal by linking science to technology, by employing sophisticated mathematical methods of measurement, by frequently serving capitalist interests, and byabstracting itself from all other concerns, often disparaged as “nonscientific,” “subjective,” or inefficient.
 
The dark, ugly, bellicose, repressive, violent, and predatory underbelly of the “disinterested” pursuit of knowledge, of “reason,” and of “democracy,” “freedom,” and “rights” as well, has been described through a litany of ungainly sociological terms, including, but not limited to: secularization, rationalization, commodification, reification (“thingification”), industri-alization, standardization, homogenization, bureaucratization, and global-ization. Each term describes a different aspect of modernity - reduction of the universe to mathematical symbols and equations, the mass production of identical objects, the standardization of individuals into the molds of conformity, the evolution of capitalist power from its competitive to monopolist to transnational stages, or the political and legal state apparatus of “representative” or “parliamentary” democracies.  Each dynamic is part of a comprehensive, aggressive, protean, and multidimensional system of power and domination, co-constituted by the three main engines incessantly propelling modern change: science, capitalism, and technology. In industrial capitalist societies, elites deploy mathematics, science, technology, bureaucracies, states, militaries, and instrumental reason to render the world as something abstract, functional, calculable, and controllable, while transforming any and all things and beings into commodities manufactured and sold for profit. [...]

Clearly, instrumental reason targets not only objects and things for control, but also subjects and society; and just as mechanistic science moved seamlessly from objectifying heavenly bodies to policing social bodies, so administrative rationality moved from controlling nature to manipulating society. The disciplining of bodies in eighteenth century schools, the ubiquitous gaze of guards over prisoners in nineteenth century penitentiaries, the Taylorization process in twentieth century factories that studied workers’ movements to minimize wasted energy and maximize surplus value; the eugenics discourse and mass sterilization policies in the United States during the 1920s; the networks of mass culture, electronic media, and advertising that constitute a vast “society of the spectacle” (Guy Debord) that transforms citizens from active agents to passive consumers; the colonization of minds of children, youth, and adults through a cornucopia of chemical toxins that dull, deaden, and neutralize minds through pharmaceutical warfare—these are only some of the seemingly infinite methods and techniques used to regiment populations, pacify resistance, neutralize activity, and eliminate opposition."

Excerpted from The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination.

The New Edge of Radical Economics - David Graeber & Charles Eisenstein.

Staten Skaber Kapitalen.

Enhver systemkritik af kapitalismen, som er andet end blot overfladisk, må tage udgangspunkt i en analyse af hvad der overhovedet muliggør kapitalismen. Kapitalismen opstod ikke i et tomrum, men var fra første færd – og fortsætter med at være – indlejret i statslige strukturer. Det er derfor vigtigt, at man ser på hvilken rolle staten spiller i kapitalismen dvs. på hvordan eksistensen af staten hænger sammen med kapitalismens eksistens.

En bærende søjle i kapitalismen er den (oftest forfatningsbaserede) private ejendomsret. En ejendomsret der ikke blot garanteres juridisk men også fysisk af statens monopol på legal voldsanvendelse. Den private ejendomsret formuleres i moderne tid juridisk i kontekst af borgerskabets revolutioner i Frankrig og De Forenede Stater. I sidstnævnte tilfælde lagde man kimen til kapitalismen ved skabelsen af denne bærende ejendomsretslige søjle, idet ejendomsbesiddende (og ofte slaveholdende) hvide mænd, skabte en forfatning hvori den private ejendomsret indgår som et centralt element.

Ligeledes central er idéen om det frie marked. Det er dog mestendels blevet ved idéen, da markedet som kapitalismen fungerer indenfor, aldrig har været egentlig frit. Det har derimod altid været indlejret i statslige strukturer som gennem lovgivning og voldelige former for magtpraksis har gjort begrænsende indgreb i markedet, ganske ofte til kapitalisternes fordel. Allerede ganske tidligt i De Forenede Staters historie indførte man således protektionistisk lovgivning, idet man allerede under den første amerikanske præsident, George Washington, indførte The Tariff Act (1789), der havde begrænsning af import og således beskyttelse af den hjemlige produktion, som sin underliggende logik.

To af måderne hvorpå staten har virket som støttehjul for kapitalismen er altså protektionisme og den forfatningssikrede ejendomsret. Sådanne ejendomsretslige juridiske tiltag er senere blevet mere mangfoldige, hvorfor vi nu kender til fænomener som intellektuel ejendomret, herunder lovgivning som giver nogle patenter og ophavsret og forbyder andre at krænke disse. Som den amerikanske intellektuelle Kevin Carson så rammende har formuleret det, er staten “jernnæven bag den usynlige hånd.”

I begyndelsen var ejendomsretten noget mere håndgribelig end i retten til idéers tilfælde (læs: intellektuel ejendomsret), idet der typisk var tale om ejerskab af noget langt mere fysisk, nemlig land. I det nordamerikanske tilfælde var der som oftest tale om ejendom man havde fået fingrene i, ved massemorderisk fortrængelse af den indfødte befolkning og/eller gennem slaveriets udbytning af ufrie menneskers arbejdskraft. Den forfatningsgaranterede private ejendomsret var således intet mindre end en legtimering af udplyndring og udbytning, skrevet af tyvene selv. Det er derfor også ganske rammende, at ordet privat - i begrebet privat ejendomsret - har sine sproglige rødder i det latinske ord privare som kan oversættes til berøve.

Også i England spillede staten en central rolle i den centralisering af magt som affødtes af, at nogle gjorde indhug i den nedarvede fælles ejendom (jorden). Mellem 1760 og 1844 vedtog man over 4000 enclosure acts som på mindre end hundrede år forvoldte, at omkring halvfems procent af jorden i England faldt på en lille minoritets hænder. Den arbejdende landbefolkning blev frarøvet muligheden for at operere på de tidligere fællesejede åbne enge, idet disse nu var på private hænder. Dette var blandt hovedårsagerne til, at bønderne fandt sig tvunget til at flytte til byerne for at finde arbejde i fabrikkerne. Statsmagten skabte således det juridiske grundlag for en omfattende berøvelse og udbytning af arbejderklassen, samt grundlaget for industrien, qua den forsyning af arbejdskraft til de kapitalistiske fabrikker, som fulgte i kølvandet på indhegningen og privatiseringen af den fælles ejendom.

I sit essay “English Enclosures and Soviet Collectivization: Two Instances of an Anti-Peasant Mode of Development” beskriver den libertarianske historiker Joseph R. Stromberg hvordan denne legalistiske udplyndring af den fælles ejendom fandt sted:

“The political dominance of large landowners determined the course of enclosure….[I]t was their power in Parliament and as local Justices of the Peace that enabled them to redistribute the land in their own favor.

A typical round of enclosure began when several, or even a single, prominent landholder initiated it … by petition to Parliament.… [T]he commissioners were invariably of the same class and outlook as the major landholders who had petitioned in the first place, [so] it was not surprising that the great landholders awarded themselves the best land and the most of it, thereby making England a classic land of great, well-kept estates with a small marginal peasantry and a large class of rural wage labourers.”

Idéen, at nogen kunne eje jorden på samme måde som man kunne eje en hestesko man selv havde smedet, blev allerede tidligt kritiseret af en af oplysningstidens mest markante intellektuelle. I sin Afhandling om Oprindelsen og Grundlaget for Uligheden Mellem Mænd (Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes) kaster filosoffen Jean-Jacques Rosseau sig ud i en sønderlemmende kritik af denne idé:

“Den første, der indhegnede et område og fandt på at sige: Dette er mit, og fandt nogen, der var dumme nok til at tro på ham, var den sande grundlægger af det borgerlige samfund. For hvor mange forbrydelser, krige, mord, for hvilke ulykker og rædsler ville ikke den mand have sparet menneskeslægten, som havde fjernet grænsepælene eller fyldt grøften op og råbt til sine fæller: Lyt ikke til denne svindler; I er fortabte, hvis I glemmer, at jordens frugter tilhører alle og jorden ingen.”

I et interview med den amerikanske systemkritiske intellektuelle Derrick Jensen i bogen Resistance Against Empire, forklarer den demokratiske økonomiske teoretiker J. W. Smith, hvori den fortabthed som Rosseau omtaler, består:

“If someone were born into our culture with the fully developed intelligence of an adult, but without our social conditioning, one of the first confusing realities she or he would face is that all of the land belongs to someone else. It’s a crazy situation. Before this person could legally stand, sit, lie down, or sleep, much less gain sustenance, she or he would have to pay whoever owned that piece of land. Now it’s one thing to own something that you’ve built—a chair, perhaps, or a table, or shoes—but land, air, and water are entirely different categories. They nurture life, are necessary to life, and were here before we were born (meaning they’re not our creation). Depriving others—all living beings, not just humans—access to land is to have the ability to kill them.” [min kursivering]

Kapitalister som ønsker staten afskaffet er der ikke mange af. Selv neoliberalister som ønsker et minimum af statslig indblanding i markedets virke ønsker ikke selve staten afskaffet. Årsagen er den simple, at staten også i det neoliberalistiske tilfælde spiller en central rolle. Den britisk-amerikanske marxistiske forfatter David Harvey beskriver statens (begrænsede) rolle i neoliberalismens tidsalder, i sin bog A Brief History of Neoliberalism:

“Neoliberalism is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade. The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to such practices. The state has to guarantee, for example, the quality and integrity of money. It must also set up those military, defence, police, and legal structures and functions required to secure private property rights and to guarantee, by force if need be, the proper functioning of markets. Furthermore, if markets do not exist (in areas such as land, water, education, health care, social security, or environmental pollution) then they must be created, by state action if necessary. But beyond these tasks the state should not venture. State interventions in markets (once created) must be kept to a bare minimum because, according to the theory, the state cannot possibly possess enough information to second-guess market signals (prices) and because powerful interest groups will inevitably distort and bias state interventions(particularly in democracies) for their own benefit.” [min kursivering]

Når staten ofte opfattes som et bolværk imod kapitalismen er årsagen med stor sandsynlighed en manglende forståelse af, at staten, snarere end at forsvare os imod kapitalismen, faktisk er blandt de væsentligste årsager til, at kapitalismen overhovedet har kunnet opstå - og stadig består. Uden den centrale rolle som staten spiller i kapitalismen er det svært at se, hvordan kapitalismen skulle kunne fortsætte med at eksistere som global økonomisk orden. Kampen mod kapitalismen må derfor af nødvendighed også være en kamp imod staten.

Crushing Captalism with Direct Action.

By Thomas Bonde.

The existence of the corporate capitalist system is highly dependent upon the economic inputs of ordinary working people. It is thus to a significant degree the cooperation of ordinary working people that makes the system possible. Engaging consciously in non-cooperative direct action is therefore a potent way of undermining the system.

Move Your Money:

Do not let your money work for large multinational banks that make considerable amounts of money on centralizing wealth in the hands of the few without any regard to the needs of ordinary people and/or the necessity of sustainable economic activity and development. Regardless of how little you may own, do not let your money work for their shortsighted and destructive production of profit for the wealthiest. If it is any way possible for you, it is strongly recommended that you move your money to a cooperative and egalitarian bank that puts great emphasis on supporting a sustainable collective evolution of humanity.

Build Cooperatives:

One of the primary problems inherent in the globalized corporate capitalist system is what we might call the ownership problem. Gigantic centrally planned multinational corporations dominate the prevailing economic system. They are characteristic by being owned by relatively few people who are often not themselves members of the productive labor force within the organization. The primary producers of value i.e. the laborers, are therefore not the receivers of the full fruit of their toil, but instead sell their time and life for fixed wages detached from the amount of profit generated.

Another characteristic is the centralized planning at the top level of these hierarchical organizations and their top-down decision-making structures. This typically means that the workers do not have any influence on what is produced and how the profits are to be distributed and/or reinvested. If you consider this an unjust state of affairs then you should apply the aforementioned principle of non-cooperation and avoid selling your life, labor and time to such organizations. Instead it is advisable to team up with others in a spirit of mutuality and solidarity and start organizations that are co-owned and cooperatively run on an egalitarian basis in ways that give everyone a say on how profits are distributed and spent.

Conscious consumerism:

Another aspect of non-cooperative direct action is conscious consumerism. Not spending your money to the advantage of corporate structures of economic power, but instead using them in ways that support the above-mentioned cooperative organizations, is an easy and effective way of directly combating corporate capitalism while simultaneously supporting and strengthening sustainable and just alternatives.

Use Alternative Currencies:

There are many alternative forms of currency already in use around the world of both monetary and non-monetary varieties. By using these to the greatest possible extent, instead of using the dominant currencies issued by central banks, you are contributing to the subversion of corporate capitalism (at least to the degree that they are not themselves partaking in the use of these alternative currencies). Non-monetary alternative currencies such as time banks are especially interesting and have great subversive potential in that they can not be taxed and the possibility of subsidizing corporate entities through the taxation of your labor is therefore greatly diminished.

Raise Awareness:

By doing any or all of the above you are already participating in the anti-capitalist struggle by setting a personal example that hopefully will inspire many others, but why stop there? You may also want to consider raising awareness about the systematic repression inherent in the capitalist system. This can be done in many ways and it is really only your imagination that limits you here. You can for example organize public screenings of critical and in-depth documentaries or invite interesting anti-capitalist voices to come and debate and educate people near you or you can join an organization that already has a history of raising awareness and support their work with your time and labor. Of course there is also the by now obvious possibility of participating in one of the many occupations of public space currently going on in cities around the world.

Keep the spirit high. The struggle continues!