Page 28 - Culture Society and Economy

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BRINGING THE ECONOMY BACK IN

emancipation. It is a demonstration that the contradiction between
individuality and sociality is a relative not an absolute one. It is revealing
that the two are deeply and organically interconnected and that the fur-
ther development of individuality cannot occur without such an immense
development of sociality. This is occurring on a global scale without par-
ticular regard to nations, communities and other local solidarities and
ethnicities – whether white, brown or black.
Anyone who thinks of himself or herself as progressive cannot there-
fore simply respond to globalization with a lament for the old which is
passing. In the end, such a posture of cultural conservatism must end up
as political conservatism as well. One may as well call for the return of
the three-field system or, for that matter, of plantation slavery. Yet mod-
ern social and cultural theory fails to emphasize or even to perceive these
realities. This is because this consciousness has been content to confine
itself to the surface of social, cultural and economic life, to rely mainly
on ‘the noisy sphere’ of everyday life while avoiding ‘the hidden abode’
of production.
But if the hidden realities of economic and social life cannot simply
be reflected in consciousness, there can be little doubt that economic
realities will out. Voluntarism and illusions in the economic sphere (usually
born from narrow self-interest or naïvety) are the characteristic sin of
politicians and political movements of Left, Right and Center, with fatal
and dreadful results. This idea – that the economic sphere does not have
a logic of its own, or, if it does, it is only ‘in the first instance’ and to ‘set
limits’ within which the political will can freely roam, and that public
policy and politicians can either disregard or play fast and loose with the
economic – is one of the most dangerous and enduring fallacies of the
age. In the case of the Left, this usually takes the form of the idea that
economic facts can be overcome by ‘political will’ – revolutionary fervor,
mass demonstrations or rhetorical flourishes – ‘red guard assaults on cap-
ital’. Adventurism in the economy, usually but not exclusively committed
by the Left, cost millions of lives in Russia, China and Cambodia and
ultimately was one cause of the collapse of socialism in Russia. It also has
been a major factor in the stagnation of the Cuban economy. Theories
which disregard or minimize the determining importance of the economy
for society have played and continue to play a major role in this failure.
One ironical aspect of this neglect of economics on the Left is that
their largely cultural theories usually fail to discuss the failures of
Marxist economic theory and practice in any depth. There is a strange
silence on critical issues such as the role of the market, the very real
problems of central planning, of how to make sense of the labor theory

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