Durkheim

Durkheim

On capitalism

1.     Individualism is not always freeing it can lead a feeling of failure in not achieving our goals, and isolation from others who care about us.

2.     Extreme optimism leads to unwarranted desires that is always a little or a lot unachievable leading to envy.

3.     In modern society there is no real agreed upon meaning in life.

4.     There is no real lasting community; we increasingly live our life among strangers. If life has lost all mystery, then it is cold and empty.

Durkheim and Weber started out to disprove Marx. Weber was an economist at first trying to defend capitalism he soon became an opponent. He saw the rapid growth of bureaucracy as the necessary outcome of capitalism damage control only making things worse, but could be avoided because of destruction of capitalism. He was depressed.

Durkheim was the only real sociologist in the beginning he too started out defending capitalism and also ended up as an opponent. He thought however ever the destruction capitalism brought and the rise of the damage control bureaucracy it would at some point lead to a utopian socialist model founded upon us choosing our positions in society based upon two moral principle the greatest good for the greatest number of people, and the love for the tradition of the craft. Good pay would enter as a pleasant surprise.

Polanyi was a Hungarian scholar who studied Economic History in Vienna as part of the Austrian School, which Polanyi would seriously assess as exposing the Historical and Anthropological flaws in both Classical and Neoclassical Economic studies. Polanyi’s critique of capitalism which emphasizes that historically the “noneconomic’” determines the economy traditional society shows that economics is embedded in social responsibility that is defined by specific societies set in particular historical settings.  Only through careful historical and cross-cultural studies of economics can we separate out the culturally and historically specific from the near universal, if possible, economic traits. Polanyi though a trained in Historical Economics is the father of Economic Anthropology.

Karl Polanyi also started out defending capitalism, but also became its’ greatest opponent. He dwarfs Marx, Weber and Durkheim. He also saw all traditional societies from the Old Stone Age till the 1830’s as some variety of socialism, some good and some evil. In the 1830’s there was a revolution creating something never existed before, capitalism. It cannibalizes destroys itself for the very start creating a need for bureaucracy. But we can turn the bureaucracy in a democratic humane even loving institution. Utopian socialist

Capitalism according to most authors changed bureaucracy from reward given by a king to his supporters and having only minimal control over everyday life in the economy to being all-inclusive presence. These two movements from more freedom in in everyday economic lives to protection from those very same decisions that undermine the stability of society as a whole is the examination that defines other discussions. Even the same individual often holds conflicting views according to Polanyi. The bureaucracy is both the solution and the problem according to Polanyi. He said we need to change the definition of social welfare from a handout to the lazy, to it is in all our best interest to look out for each other in our community, each doing her share. I believe if he were alive today he would say this begins with pre-k education.  True we will always have bums, but if we can lower their number to a tiny minority, we would need fewer regulations. Competition and desire for wealth will still be there, but becomes secondary to the desire to be socially responsible to the larger community. This is what he meant traditional economies and our economy in the future being embedded in a larger social ethic.