above - Karl Marx and Friedrich Hayek
for more information on Eric Aarons see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Aarons
Reivew Essay by Dr Tristan
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Firstly, we will summarise Aarons’ account of Hayek. From there we will consider his account of Marx. Thereafter we will consider both the ideas of Marx and Hayek in further depth, and in light of Aarons’ own ideas and criticisms.
In the process, we will consider such themes as economic democracy, alienation, markets and planning, and the ‘clash’ of free markets and nature.
Exploring Hayek..
Aarons reminds us: both Marx and Hayek saw abundance as the key in optimising social outcomes: for the betterment of all, and ultimately of a sustainable social peace.
Hayek especially saw the
“better satisfaction of…material needs [as] the sole objective on which people could possibly agree and live peacefully together, with each then aiming at their own further individual ends.” (Aarons pp 1-2)
“an organism in which every part performs a necessary function for the continuance of the whole”…. (Aarons p 17)
But for Hayek, the “craving” of the “majority” “for a more humane and personal morals” could “quite likely…destroy the Open Society”. (Aarons P 19)
No moral principle and practical moral imperative was to interfere with the spontaneous economic order. Refusing to consider the moral implications of any such order: for Hayek this was a purely ‘practical’ matter. Even a ‘mixed economy’, by this reckoning, could result in political and economic disaster.
At one stage, Hayek wrote:
“Once politics becomes a ‘tug-of-war’ for shares in the income pie, decent government is impossible.” “Middle ways” also “give license to the politicians to interfere in the spontaneous order of the market”… (Aarons P 156)
In the name of this order thus – for the sake of the practical self interest of individuals – the worst of social ills were to be tolerated – or even seen as functional: exploitation, homelessness, poverty.
On the basis of these assumptions, therefore, Hayek has it that “justice” does not have anything to do with “booms and busts”. For him the spontaneous order is beyond our means to control: and so ‘no one is to blame’. This is convenient for a ruling stratum who wish to evade all responsibility for the ruination they bring upon the innocent. (45-46)
Important in Hayek’s reasoning was his assertion of the extremely limited range of understanding each individual might be able to hold in comparison to the complex ‘organic’ entity that is the economy. Rather than trusting in overt planning, Hayek claimed:
“[Thus] we trust the independent and competitive efforts of many to induce the emergence of what we shall want”… (Aarons P 20)
To quote Hayek in greater depth; here he is referring to
“the way the market works in arriving at the prices of commodities through the interaction of thousands or millions of buyers and sellers, in a way that cannot be matched by planning, because the necessary data is too diffuse to be collected, yet is readily processed and made available with little cost through the market mechanism…” (Aarons p 39)
And further:
This adjustment also affects the “division of labour” “Within and between sectors.” So “the mix of commodities” “corresponds at least roughly to the requirements of the population”.. (Aarons P 40)
The deliberate, widespread and systematic use of market research by corporations also flies in the face of Hayek’s ideology. Further: imperialist policies ensuring ‘spheres of interest’ and control of global markets – involve extensive planning not only by monopoly capital, but also by their allies in government and the State.
Underlying Hayek’s reverence for “organic spontaneity”, however, was a deeply-held individualism and liberalism.
Thus:
“only the individualist approach to social phenomena makes us recognise the super-individual forces which guide the growth of reason. Individualism is thus an attitude of humility before this social process. (Aarons p 19)
Despite Hayek’s disdain for social solidarity, however, the Austrian thinker nevertheless saw the need for refuge in our most “intimate groupings”. Hayek contends: Were we to apply the rules of the extended order to our more intimate groupings we “would crush them.” Therefore, “we must learn to live in two sorts of world at once.” (Aarons pp 35-36)
Beyond our most intimate circles, though, for Hayek the aim of the law is simply to provide the framework for this extreme economically liberal order. Thus, in ‘The Fatal Conceit’ Hayek spells out certain ‘commercial rules’: “honesty, contract, exchange, trade, competition, gain and privacy”. (Aarons p 109)
Another aspect of Hayek’s philosophy is his “instrumental” approach to nature.
“We are generally confident that, by the time the resource is exhausted, something new will have been discovered…”
“To use up a free gift of nature once and for all is [as in cases of land deterioration] no more wasteful or reprehensible than a similar exploitation of a stock resource.” (Aarons p 52)
And furthermore:
“Step by step momentary impediments to further population increase are penetrated”.. (Aarons p 54)
Hayek’s ‘article of faith’ here – in regard to exponential increases in population, and exhaustion of natural resources - seems beyond all rational supposition. At the very least one might expect: humanity ought ration its use of resources until such a time as alternatives emerge. And further – in the interim – we ought co-operate and plan in the search for sustainability.
As Aarons notes:
The ‘Club or Rome
The danger signs were already glaring in Hayek’s lifetime: but never did he confront the impending environmental crisis: a crisis of such magnitude no ‘spontaneous’ organic economic process can overcome.
To conclude: for Hayek “private property”, with “universal rules of just individual conduct” “in which the market system dominated” “was in effect the peak of social development”. Hayek’s much vaunted ‘Open Society’, therefore, was forever to be closed to future change. Instead, perhaps, we would be better advised to call it the ‘arrested society’. (Aarons P 152)
Exploring Marx-
i) Materialism, dialectics, history
Both for Marx; and for Hegel and the radical Young Hegelians who followed: all had to be considered in historical context.
Marx, however, resolved to ‘correct’ Hegel’s Idealist conception of history: ‘placing it on its feet’.
Hegel had held that the dialectic of history [was]…subordinate to the development of the Idea in art, religion and philosophy…” Thus “individuality, the element of subjectivity, is inherently eternal and divine as an intrinsic part of the Absolute Idea. (Aarons P 69)
For Marx, “the dialectic of history had no such superstructure” no “systematic support for the principle of subjectivity.”
Like Feurbach, Marx emphasised the importance of “reality” and “sensuousness”.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” (Aarons P 9)
This was at the heart of Marx’s materialism: combined with his identification of class struggle, as arising as consequence of the mode of production, as the ‘engine of history’.
But Marx’s position was deeper and more nuanced than pure materialist determinism.
In the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx observes:
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm
Hence Aarons concludes: “it cannot be denied that the tension in Marx’s orientation remained, and neither he nor most of his followers were able to satisfactorily resolve it. (Aarons pp 69-70)
Radicals had to work “on all fronts” “involving ideas and ethical values”… to contest the prevailing “common sense”… to achieve a new “common sense” raising it to a hegemonic position…. (Aarons P 71)
Ultimately – after dedicating most of his lifetime to the communist movement, Aarons appears to draw the conclusion that Marx – and professed ‘Marxists’ - placed too much emphasis upon what was material and objective.
Even here Aarons himself inverts the famous statement of Marx: where Marx spoke of ‘turning Hegel on his feet’ by adopting a materialist conception. Instead, Aarons argues that – in fact – Marx did the opposite. (ie: that he turned Hegel upside down) ‘Turning Hegel on his side’, therefore, is something of a Gramscian gesture itself: placing as much emphasis upon culture as material conditions.
As Aarons concludes: “Without its consciousness, including speech, reason and imagination - what would remain to differentiate the human species from all others? (Aarons p 68)
Exploring Marx ii) Class Struggle, Revolution, Communism
But the capitalist economic system was also deeply flawed. These flaws included “booms and busts of the business cycle”, “development of monopolies” “and their authoritarian, exploitative relationship with the workers”. (Aarons p 1)
The transition to communism, therefore, would have many stages. From the ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ – whereby the working class established itself as ruling class – through democratic process – this path of change would lead through socialism with the development of the means of production and the advent of a classless society.
With abundance communist society would overcome past contradictions, and social maladies associated with alienation, exploitation, the division of labour.
There would arise “an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” (Aarons P 86)
Here we turn to Marx’s own imaginings on the content of future communist society:
“in a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therefore also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life’s prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of cooperative wealth flow more abundantly – only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” (Aarons p 95)
Exploring Marx iii) Marx and Alienation
As considered above in Marx’s vision for future communist society, another crucial element of Marx’s social criticism was his account of ‘alienation’: a phenomenon of many dimensions and causes.
These human beings were “separated from and dominated by their own product because it belongs to another – their employer.” And further: “Their work [was] coerced rather than voluntary – to obtain the necessities of life, not to express and develop their human capacities."
Marx continues:
“The capitalist system, based on a division of labour, exchange, buying and selling -including the buying and selling of labour power – separates people from each other rather than bringing them together in harmonious community…:” (Aarons p 12)
Marx’s account of alienation, here, is crucial – for as Aarons explains:
“Hayek gave overwhelming priority to “the better satisfaction of material needs’, not the maximum development of the human individual’s inborn powers. (Aarons, p 52)
Marx’s deeper appreciation of the human condition thus sets him apart from Hayek: who thinks only of maximising material gain.
Aarons Responds to Marx and Hayek
Building on his criticism, exposition and interpretation of Marx and Hayek, Aarons draws many conclusions that are instructive or provocative in today’s context.
To advance our consideration of Aarons’ position, though, we will return for now to the issue of markets and alienation: in its practical and moral dimensions.
ON MARKETS AND ALIENATION
As we have already considered, Marx identified alienation as a multi-faceted social phenomenon impacting upon the human condition: often such as to dehumanise working people – rather than enabling them to fulfil their full potential
Aarons, however, believes that Marx’s rage against alienation led him to err: to make assumptions, sometimes, that for the immediate future might even be considered utopian.
“Marx opposed the exchange relationships involved in commodity production because it alienated the participants from the social dimensions of human life.” (Aarons P 23)
This critique of alienation helped highlight and entrench the opposition of many socialists to ‘the market’. Indeed, Marx had written in the ‘Communist Manifesto’: that “buying and selling” “had to be replaced with planning by the associated (and collectively owning) producers, if alienation was to be transcended.”(Aarons p 23)
Reflecting upon this, Aarons affirms: that :
“Markets can “to a considerable extent, spontaneously arrange and re-arrange the quantitative division of …resources (capital equipment, labour, raw materials…) devoted to each item among the mix of enormous numbers of different items (‘use values’)… (Aarons p 25)
Continuing in this vein he notes:
“Profit-seeking is also a motivation, in competition, to economise on capital and raw materials as well as labour…” “thus reducing prices to the consumer…”
And finally he explains
“It is also a stimulus to making new innovations, both in means of production and consumer goods… (Aarons p 25)
As writers from the so-called ‘Budapest
“The very idea of control from below demands the overcoming of this rigid alternative choice between planning or market…” (Aarons p 74)
Aarons also expresses his disappointment with so-called ‘really existing socialism’. To him: “regimes” built supposedly in Marx’s name were “repulsive”. They “savaged the democracy he fought for” and “greatly increased, rather than diminished, the alienation he had dedicated himself to overcome.” (Aarons p 74)
Further, Aarons also observes: “The administrative determination of the prices of consumption goods…along with the failure to increase supply to meet even the effective demand, created a centralised ‘dictatorship over needs’ concurrent with political repression and ideological control.”
Importantly – and regardless of this, Aarons doesn’t think Marx identified the market exclusively with “the totality of the capitalist system”. (Aarons p 23)
Alienation, according to Marx, is not necessarily “eternal”. Indeed - Marx’s view was that “capitalism, while intensifying alienation, laid the material basis for its ending” (Aarons P 15)
Alienation and the Democratic Mixed Economy
Neither is it within our reach to do without all forms of work which are menial, monotonous, and anathema to the free and full human development of each individual. Even assuming public or co-operative ownership and control – there are some occupations that nonetheless could involve conditions of deep alienation,.
What we can do is to set a course so as to minimise alienation as best we can – and maximise the opportunity for workers, citizens, human beings – to develop their human potential.
To begin with, there is the need to establish a fairer system of industrial relations: including tax credits and a higher minimum wages for the most vulnerable of workers.
This, in turn, could enable these workers – child care workers, cleaners, hospitality workers, textiles workers, retail workers, call centre workers, some clerical workers – to ‘make ends meet’ even while allowing for a shorter working week.
Justice, here, is not the capitalist norm: where workers are compensated in line with their market power to demand higher wages. Where workers suffer as a consequence of menial work: it is fair for society to compensate for such undesirable – but socially necessary labour.
According to Aarons, thus, preference for markets - is “not universally applicable”. Aarons p 31)
The same could be said for private enterprise.
Instances of: private involvement in infrastructure – including Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are to Aarons a “new and disturbing trend”. “Services formerly provided to people cheaply or even free by governments are now priced high enough (road tolls for example) to include private profit. (p 159) Commercial in confidence” arrangements guarantee profits.” And “in addition to what can be squeezed from the workers directly involved, profits now come directly out of consumer’s pockets…”
(Aarons p 189)
Aarons warns: “Privatisation “has already removed governments from many of the social infrastructure institutions” “It has also created a worrying gap between government and much of the often complex knowledge and expertise involved in these areas.” (Aarons P 191)
“society’s infrastructure…is not spontaneously financed by capital flowing to where most profit is to be made, nor should it be. Schools, hospitals, prisons, ports, roads, public transport, postal services, old and new communications systems, water supply and sewerage systems, facilities for the aged and infirm, child care… are areas becoming daily more important in the full social picture…” (Aarons p 31)
This is a good start, comprising solid ground from which to launch a deeper ‘counter-offensive’.
In ways it suggests a return to a “social market” model – as embraced by the German Christian Democrats in 1950s, and the German Social Democrats “after 1959” (pp 33-34) This ‘social market model’ suggested “a social vision couched in moral as well as economic terms…”, and “recognition of the fundamentally social nature of organised production”. Further, it implied a “moral community” “required to legitimate the social order…” , and the“[prevention] of the emergence of a ‘two-tier’ society” including a layer of permanently poor. (Aarons pp 33-34)
Finally – and importantly – that model involved:
“recognition that desirable public ownership should not be seen as a bridgehead to full public ownership and a traditional socialist society”. (Aarons pp 33-34)
For reasons not made clear in the book, though, Aarons also neglects to mention forms of collective capital formation: through wage earner, community investment or pension funds. Here the vision of Rudolph Meidner still inspires – although the problems of implementation remain where even in light of saturation unionisation levels voters took fright at such radicalism.
But what of co-operatives and mutual societies?
And if we concede the need for competition in some fields; what forms of public and democratic ownership and control could be reconciled with this?
Hypothetically, for instance, mining enterprises could be socialised in the Australian context: while still being spurred by international competitive markets.
Furthermore: co-operative and mutualist enterprises in areas as diverse as credit, insurance, agriculture, small business, and many other fields - could compete in local and international markets while providing fuller remuneration for workers, and a measure of collective control.
Similar projects may be publicly subsidised in the field of democratic, alternative,
community-based, and participatory media. Such enterprises could be crucial for the health of liberal and participatory democracy – such as to justify subsidy beyond the normal scope of competitive markets.
Notably, though: even in such instances it is not within our means to overcome the division of labour. (But it would certainly be a marked improvement.)
Democratic enterprise, here, could be further supported through cheap credit, tax rebates, and free advice on investment and management.
The viability of co-operative and democratic enterprise of this sort demonstrated by such instances as:
· the Mondragon co-operative in Spain
· Rabobank in the Netherlands
· The ‘Recovered companies’ in Argentina: these comprise about 200 factories, employing 10,000 people, seized by workers following the 2001 economic crisis, and now operating on a ‘non for profit’ basis (Stanford, p 329).
These are not merely ‘experiments behind society’s back’ – but comprise imposing and significant inroads for the cause of economic democracy.
Aarons concludes at one point:
“corporatisation and privatisation has generally failed”. “consumers of these services, embracing a major part of the population, now have to pay for and, through taxes, guarantee the profit as well as the capital, on top of the profit squeezed out of the workers employed.” (Aarons, P 31)
Despite the recognised need for markets, therefore, markets can also “[foster] self-interest” “to the detriment of socially oriented values.” (Aarons P 44)
Markets can be so corrupted as to involve oligopoly or private monopoly, collusion, built-in-obsolescence, staggered release of new technology, over-provision of unnecessary services (eg: medical) and exploitation of workers.
While Aarons views attempts to actually implement communism a “greater failure”, he mentions the Great Depression; and Communist victories in Russia
Stalinism warped Marx’s vision cruelly – discrediting socialism in the eyes of many. To put this in perspective, however: we should consider that successive wars; from World War One to Vietnam Iraq Guatemala Indonesia Chile
In particular, while conceding the failure of many attempted ‘grand narratives’ of history, Aarons “[supposes that a] more modest term ‘social philosophy’ indicates that some overall view of the totality of social relationships is still required” He further contends: “we badly need an alternative to the prevailing [overall view]: one especially tailored to cope with our present circumstances.” (Aarons P 198)
On one hand, it is true that Marx insisted:
“The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living”. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm
But others have just as insistently asserted that there is “nothing new under the sun”.
Perhaps it is best to ‘strike a balance’ between what is new, and the wisdom of tradition.
A ‘conservative socialism’ or ‘authoritarian socialism’ is just as possible to conceive as “economically neo-liberal authoritarianism” or “classical liberalism – economic and social”.
Such titles as these provide a deeper and more-nuanced picture of the social, philosophical and political values and agendas of their adherents.
Left traditions, though, have been developed in the course of decades – even centuries - of struggle. They have been further enriched by the struggle of vulnerable and oppressed groups: workers, the most poor and marginal (ie: the underclass), women, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, those of queer sexuality, nations oppressed and exploited under the heel of imperialism and colonialism.
The identity – the sense of moral strength and purpose – that has developed in the course of these struggles – ought not be abandoned.
On the other hand, there is a danger – and in some senses an opportunity – that the fusion of ‘green’ and ‘red’ politics may come undone if the politics of environmental sustainability become hegemonic – across both the traditional Left and Right. This would have to involve the abandonment of the kind of ‘hands off’ approach preferred by the adherents of Hayek, Rand and other ‘intellectual giants’ of economic liberalism. And it would require the realisation by sections of the capitalist class that environmental catastrophe – ‘posed the greater danger’ – giving rise to divisions within the ruling elite. But concession that planning and intervention are needed to “save capitalism from itself” – is alone not enough to provide justice to the poor, the exploited and the oppressed.
In some countries – eg: in Sweden Holland , Denmark
In a sense, though: the Left cannot continue to ‘live in the past’ – to the extent that old battles: disasters and victories – remain the main focus to the expense of responding to new circumstances. But in Australia
Australian Labor – like many other social democratic parties – is torn in its need to carry the relative centre. As such Labor will continue to compromise in ways that are populist and opportunistic – until such a day that progressive social forces win the struggle for hegemony.
This paper has explored and responded to a great deal of the content of ‘Hayek versus Marx’: an important title which certainly deserves more exposure than it has enjoyed to date. However, there are some other very important aspects of Aarons’s analysis that deserve exposition and criticism.
“The cortex or thin covering layer of the frontal lobes of the brain is the focal point for our reasoning capacity.” (Aarons p 107)
He further notes:
Damasio’s “revelation” that “secondary” emotions…have to go through the cortical reasoning centre to activate the body..”
Thus he concludes there is a: “connection between emotion, reason and action…”
For Aarons, this is corroborated by Damasio’s work in the case study of “Elliot’:
Here an “orange-size tumor” was “removed from the right frontal lobe of his brain…” When tested [he] did well in moral judgment – and in providing solutions to social problems… But thereafter he remarked “And after all this, I still wouldn’t know what to do!” Damasio realised “the connections between the emotional and the reasoning centres of Elliot’s brain had been severed by the operation to remove the tumour from his right frontal lobe…
For Aarons, this substantiates David Hume’s contention that emotion is active, while reason is (at least relatively) passive. (Aarons, pp 107-108)
Thus, in light of this analysis, we are provided with a rationale as to why:
“moral sentiments spurred action more strongly than reason”…
Reason and moral sentiments (partly emotional in origin), thus, ought be taken together: the entirety of the human psyche directed towards the tasks of justice, solidarity, kindness, progress and survival.
This especially calls for the application of our reason – animated by emotion – to confront environmental crises: the threat of global warming, and the potential disaster caused by disruption to the natural order, with the elimination of crucial species.
Aarons considers the extent to which economic activity can, indeed, be a ‘spontaneous’ process. Thereafter he considers the spontaneous processes of nature.
Aarons further observes to the effect that:
The ‘market’ “cannot see” anything “not tagged with a price.” Greenhouse gases so far had no price. “But can growth, in the nature of things, go on forever, Hayek’s ‘act of faith’ notwithstanding? (Aarons p 53)
Continuing in this line of thought he asserts that there is a “clash of spontaneous processes’ ( ‘Market versus Nature’): one which requires the application of Reason: of deliberate foresight and planning – to resolve.
In conclusion, there remains the question of whether there is any such thing as objective morality: or whether morality is but the elevation of our emotional instincts – mediated through the filter of our reason.
For the author of this critique (Ewins), meanwhile, our passion for ‘right’ is not just a practical compromise, but is the expression of some of the highest aspirations and inclinations of humanity: the love of one’s fellow human beings beyond self-interest– and a spur to justice.
And for some sentient life is objectively sacred: each life a unique living soul unto itself; animated by free will and consciousness – mysteries which we can observe, but cannot fully understand even with the full armoury of science brought to bear. While science can observe and note laws of causation: ‘first cause’ is impenetrable: as is “the cause without cause”.
Aarons’s vision II
Again – we are moving to summarise material which is treated in great detail in Aarons’ ‘Hayek versus Marx’. Other areas which receive treatment in this title include: the human values of Marx; the nature of economic cycles and of the more recent financial disaster (we speak here of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008); the sheer scale of the environmental challenge; and the power of people to demand – and achieve change.
We will consider Aarons’ account of the current economic cycle.
Aarons suggests that the current financial crisis could have been predicted: following after a pattern which is not new.
He explains how financial institutions and banks…sought maximum expansion in shortest time… These… multiplied, “particularly in the housing mortgage and other loan markets.” “with little Government or central bank oversight or regulation”
In accordance with the economic cycle….“the value of “existing assets” “[began] to rise”… “Financial institutions [were] eager to lend in order to participate in prospective profits. [Further], the rise in the value of existing assets becomes the security for still further loans, and so it proceeds in a self-reinforcing manner.”
“The [resultant] euphoria created can last for a considerable length of time…” But ultimately: “shortcuts” are taken… regardless of rigorous “scrutiny of…actual/potential income” and evaluation of “assets”…
In the United States
“[But] As that deferral time expired, panic set in…” This then spread to the “real economy” despite assurances it would not…(Aarons Pp 46-47)
Aarons holds that we really ought to have known better: and suggests that Marx’s analysis is still useful in comprehending the business cycle.
For Marx, Aarons explains,
“The last cause of all real crises remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as compared to the tendency of capitalist production to develop the productive forces in such a way, that only the absolute power of consumption of the entire society would be their limit.”
(P 202)
(P 202)
Further, he holds that:
Poverty in many countries needs to be addressed… “So does the underclass which comprises about 20 per cent of even the richest countries today…” (Aarons p 202)
But crucially, Aarons considers:
“With proper planning any surplus production capacity could be absorbed by diverting a great deal of production in the direction of the poor and needy.” (Aarons p 202)
This in itself suggests a move beyond the market, involving some measures of direct redistribution. Further, it could be applied systematically on an international basis. Questions remain, though, about the potential abuse of such a system, and work would need to be directed to planning its implementation. Nationalist resistance would also arise in the face of even modest and tentative international redistribution.
Such measures, then, would be accompanied by shift to renewable and sustainable energy… “and the further development of the infrastructure on which the rest of production ultimately depends.” (Aarons p 202)
Ultimately, this would “feed into a significant further expansion of social justice measures, particularly in education, health and caring.” To this we could add social participation and information.
Conclusion
Aarons draws to his conclusion: noting the need to abandon ‘two ideologies’.
Firstly: “Marx’s proposition that there is a known destination towards which humanity is inexorably tending”
Secondly: “the Hayekian contention that we are on the verge or arriving at a desirable point and that all will be well with the world as long as we accept that the best way to get there is to rely on the spontaneous forces of the market and of society as a whole.”
He notes: “The pressures we face are great “because, within less than fifty years, it is likely that global warming will have reached the critical point.” (Aarons P 184)
That said: what options are open to us to contend the shape of things to come?
Earlier in the 20th Century, thinkers such as Herbert Marcuse and Theodore Adorno theorised the failure of the working class to emerge at the key historic moment as ‘revolutionary historic subject.’
Marcuse, for instance, referred to ‘One Dimensional Man’: where the revolutionary potential of the working class was smothered by pervasive Ideology. This Ideology affirmed rather than negated the social order: implicating workers in a culture of unbridled consumerism which rationalised unnecessary labour, and the relentless logic of capitalist accumulation.
Marcuse made a clarion call for a “Great Refusal’: by which the most marginal and oppressed elements of society provided resistance. Liberal inroads against oppression based on gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality, however, have nullified much of this resistance.
To an extent, this has left organised labour, and a socio-economic underclass, isolated.
In the United States Australia
One blogger reviews the title as follows:
“Ghettoized and economically oppressed in a manner that often defies widely held beliefs regarding race and class, “redneck” workers--ignorant, angry, and propagandized--have become the populist backbone of the conservative political resurgence, repeatedly voting against their own economic interests, and recreating the very causes of their anger driven, irrational political behavior…”
And further:
“ I am sensitive to terms like “white trash,” “hick,” and “redneck” as class based put-downs. I have as little use for middle class whites who mock lower class whites as I do for racism.”
( http://goffchile-asiplease.blogspot.com/2007/12/book-review-deer-hunting-with-jesus-by.html )
Against the weight of history, however, there is still cause to hold to hope. The ideology of consumerism and neo-liberalism is smothering: debilitating. But the rise of the internet is providing ‘openings’ for the self organisation of workers and progressives.
There is also a feeling – recognised by many – that for many workers, consumerism is approaching its limits in how it can legitimise overwork in the midst of plenty. There are some for whom full-time work or overtime itself seems redundant. Thinkers like Barbara Pocock speak of a ‘Work/Life’ collision. And Clive Hamilton writes of a ‘Growth Fetish’: whereby endless acquisition of ‘things’ distracts us from the opportunity for fuller social and individual growth. These writers – and others – appeal to a growing sentiment: of today’s ‘historic moment’.
Meanwhile environmental crisis signals the death knell for that Ideology that held the growth in consumerism would be unimpeded and exponential.
Further: that crisis invalidates the Hayekian vision of fully spontaneous capitalism. Only concerted planning and deliberate intervention, now, can prevent catastrophe.
Finally there is the question: assuming free will, what possibilities are there for the rise of a collective ‘historic subject’ – to become a force for change?
Perhaps – in a way – the pessimism of the ‘New Left’ movement regarding the working class helped fulfil its own premises, contributing to the process of demobilisation.
Yet again, though : hope persists
In economically advanced countries at least – the material foundations have been laid for what could be a substantially more just, fulfilling and humane order. Some suppose a ‘bad totality with no way out’: but Aarons’ analysis supposes an active element of the human psyche - working in tandem with human reason. This in turn gives weight to voluntarist claims: which, if believed, would reinforce hope.
Returning again to Marx:
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please…”
The past, though, is more than a ‘nightmare’ ‘weighing upon our minds’. It is a storehouse of lessons and the wisdom of experience. While we ought not become ‘trapped in the past’, neither ought we forget.
Through the measures outlined in this paper, we have already considered means by which alienation might be significantly ameliorated: especially in the economically advanced democracies. The material basis for such measures is within our grasp. But still the struggle is political and well as economic. Certainly there are many vested interests who would resist the construction of a ‘democratic mixed economy’.
Again: the spread of liberal education for active citizenship is one important step in re-energising the self-organisation and critical faculties of ordinary people. In many countries the number of citizens partaking in higher education is greater than ever before. But at the same time there are those who seek to marginalise liberal educational culture: reducing it to a vehicle for corporate interests.
Earlier in “Hayek versus Marx”, Aarons contends that the challenge before us:
”will require a radically new ‘mix’ of free and planned markets, of spontaneity and reason, competition and co-operation, self-interest and altruism, individualism and collectivity, citizen and government activity, national and international action – indeed a new ‘mix’ of all the aspects of humanity that enter into our social existence.” (Aarons p 4)
‘Hayek versus Marx’ is an important title: an honest and thorough interrogation of two giants of social theory. But while drawing deeply from Marx and Hayek, the author also provides a broader analysis - formed by an entire life time of study, AND practical experience.
The ‘new mix’ Aarons mentions provides some important ‘signposts’ for a Left which has become disorientated with its relative decline. Nevertheless – if anything – Aarons overestimates this decline – sometimes seeming to suggest it is final and irreversible.
The ‘new paradigm’ Aarons suggests – if it is to form the basis of a new counter-hegemonic historic bloc – must promote co-operation and mutual discourse between the ‘green’ left and the ‘red’ left. And it must draw upon other traditions: building bridges between diverse social forces. The German ‘social market’ model, and the ‘Historic Compromise” in Italy
Through will, reason, love, and passion for justice: hope persists.
This authoritative title deserves to be read by all who are interested in the future of the Left; the tasks of thorough theoretical synthesis and reorientation; and the possibility of a ‘new paradigm’.
Bibliography:
Aarons, Eric; Hayek versus Marx And Today’s Challenges; Routledge. New York
Stanford, Jim; Economics for Everyone – a Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism, Pluto Press, London
