Thank for you for the excellent commentary. I will see if I can get access to your main article. I think the problem of voluntary servitude is the fundamental problem of the left and requires all our theoretical understanding. It’s almost become obsessional, given the number of works dedicated to better elucidating it over the last 50+ years but still derives new insight - as your essay shows.
As a doctor training to become a psychiatrist (with a strong psychoanalytical bent) who studied continental philosophy, the connections and questions that you raise around fascism and mental illness are cat nip to me. I’ve always followed the theorisation of the fascist impulse as a manifestation of the desire for a master that flows from Adorno and Lacan (in different ways) but I’m not well read on D&G (sadly never got round to AO on my masters - something that I will one day address!). There is definitely a connection between the suicidal impulse, and a nihilism; and the super-ego/death drive. The nihilistic super ego? More than my brain can handle at the moment but fun to play with.
Ben, I greatly appreciate your comments, especially with all your relevant background and interests! Let me know if you have trouble accessing the main article. I'd be happy to share a copy via email. All the best, Kevin
"voluntary servitude" is definitely the problem. There seem to be no limit to the narrowness persons allow themselves to be restricted to and to the loss of human richness and depth persons will accept. I would not have believed it. What is up with that? They just do not seem to care. People like working for Amazon???? And how do they put up with all these damn advertisements? It drives me crazy. I go to sleep and enter a peaceful world; then I need to deal with this perverted "reality." Every damn day.
I am exceedingly interested in this quote from your article, "Marx’s law of the counteracting tendency is therefore relevant for analyzing the relationship between capitalist society and mental illness, including fascism as a realized nihilism." and wonder if you could point me in the direction of more reading on the relationship between mental illness and capitalism.
Another who explores connections between capitalism (neoliberalism in particular) and mental illness, though again not through the kind of Marxian/Spinozist lens I write about, is Byung-Chul Han: https://www.sup.org/books/theory-and-philosophy/burnout-society
Thank you for writing this! I found that your main ending argument was very compelling, being that we need to strengthen our understanding of the mechanisms of capital to truly steel ourselves against fascism. I also think even just in your inclusion of information from Capital Vol. 3 demonstrates an excellent educational background and a lot of time taken to understand said mechanisms. Well done!
People struggle on behalf of their oppressor because they are trapped inside the supremacist worldview that legitimizes the strong man worldview of I/me/mine/mightmakesright.
Well, I wouldn't simply equate the two, but I do think fascism is a product of capitalism, and historically the capitalist class has been willing to lean into fascism as a way to help save capitalism. So, there's a very close relation, indeed. Thanks for reading!
I would because capitalism primarily harms the same people fascism does: POC, LGBTQ people, women, disabled people, poor white people, and children while it primarily benefits wealthy white men. And capitalism was imagined into being by wealthy white men.
Yes. Capitalism is modernity's iteration of wealth supremacy. Wealth supremacy is the font of all supremacisms. Fascism is the predictable outcome of supremacism and the I/me/mine/mightmakesright worldview that spawns it.🌼
" Breaking points thus come, just not for capital itself. " Etc. Hey! This sounds very good! Thank you for Subscribing to me; I just put something up about "capital." Did you read that? I would not have the patience to read all of that in the original so this is really valuable. Much of it agrees with what I thik although I never got past like 20 pages of vol. 1 and I sure did not get to vol 3. One thing I have arrived at through my experience of mostly having some kind of big huge social problem and no job to speak of is that the "Revolution" stuff in Marx is just plain wrong. I have been around working class persons a little bit more than the average upper-middle class fellow and working class persons do not have the scope to conceive of revolution. They just do not think that way. I have never seen any evidence of it. So that is just a misunderstanding of what human beings are like. I generally say "marx is 1/2 right, 1/2 wrong." Also, to you, my new subscriber I just want to add that, when I read Marx & Engels originally (1980s) I noticed the appreciation they had for human feeling and for understanding things in life outside of the intellect. For example, Marx talks about the "sensuous" quality of things a lot (which does not really survive as that sort of language is archaic now) and from what I read you have some sensitivity to that. Well, good luck in jolly old England, sir!
Thank for you for the excellent commentary. I will see if I can get access to your main article. I think the problem of voluntary servitude is the fundamental problem of the left and requires all our theoretical understanding. It’s almost become obsessional, given the number of works dedicated to better elucidating it over the last 50+ years but still derives new insight - as your essay shows.
As a doctor training to become a psychiatrist (with a strong psychoanalytical bent) who studied continental philosophy, the connections and questions that you raise around fascism and mental illness are cat nip to me. I’ve always followed the theorisation of the fascist impulse as a manifestation of the desire for a master that flows from Adorno and Lacan (in different ways) but I’m not well read on D&G (sadly never got round to AO on my masters - something that I will one day address!). There is definitely a connection between the suicidal impulse, and a nihilism; and the super-ego/death drive. The nihilistic super ego? More than my brain can handle at the moment but fun to play with.
Ben, I greatly appreciate your comments, especially with all your relevant background and interests! Let me know if you have trouble accessing the main article. I'd be happy to share a copy via email. All the best, Kevin
"voluntary servitude" is definitely the problem. There seem to be no limit to the narrowness persons allow themselves to be restricted to and to the loss of human richness and depth persons will accept. I would not have believed it. What is up with that? They just do not seem to care. People like working for Amazon???? And how do they put up with all these damn advertisements? It drives me crazy. I go to sleep and enter a peaceful world; then I need to deal with this perverted "reality." Every damn day.
I am exceedingly interested in this quote from your article, "Marx’s law of the counteracting tendency is therefore relevant for analyzing the relationship between capitalist society and mental illness, including fascism as a realized nihilism." and wonder if you could point me in the direction of more reading on the relationship between mental illness and capitalism.
Thanks so much for your interest! That idea is fleshed out much more in my article “Spinoza, Marx and Anti-Oedipus: A Labour Theory of Repression” in the journal Deleuze and Guattari Studies. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/dlgs.2024.0550?journalCode=dlgs
It’s behind a paywall, but if you’re interested in reading it, I’m willing to share a pdf copy with you. Just let me know.
While Gabor Maté doesn’t draw on a Marxian analysis or focus on the mode of production per say, I think his work aligns in a lot of interesting ways: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608273/the-myth-of-normal-by-gabor-mate-md-with-daniel-mate/
Another who explores connections between capitalism (neoliberalism in particular) and mental illness, though again not through the kind of Marxian/Spinozist lens I write about, is Byung-Chul Han: https://www.sup.org/books/theory-and-philosophy/burnout-society
Ah brilliant, thanks so much foe those links! and yes - please - of you're willing to share a pdf I would be grateful
Absolutely! I'll send via email. Cheers!
Thanks for posting.
I am reminded of Orwell.
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/
Thank you!
Thank you for writing this! I found that your main ending argument was very compelling, being that we need to strengthen our understanding of the mechanisms of capital to truly steel ourselves against fascism. I also think even just in your inclusion of information from Capital Vol. 3 demonstrates an excellent educational background and a lot of time taken to understand said mechanisms. Well done!
Thank you, Bruce! Very glad to hear you found it compelling and can appreciate the work that went into it. I appreciate the comment!
aye i just wrote about fascism as well
Until things drastically change - we must beat them at their own game to save Mother Earth!
https://open.substack.com/pub/christophermeestoerato/p/time-for-a-pocketbook-revolution?r=12utpl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
People struggle on behalf of their oppressor because they are trapped inside the supremacist worldview that legitimizes the strong man worldview of I/me/mine/mightmakesright.
Capitalism = fascism.
Well, I wouldn't simply equate the two, but I do think fascism is a product of capitalism, and historically the capitalist class has been willing to lean into fascism as a way to help save capitalism. So, there's a very close relation, indeed. Thanks for reading!
I would because capitalism primarily harms the same people fascism does: POC, LGBTQ people, women, disabled people, poor white people, and children while it primarily benefits wealthy white men. And capitalism was imagined into being by wealthy white men.
Yes. Capitalism is modernity's iteration of wealth supremacy. Wealth supremacy is the font of all supremacisms. Fascism is the predictable outcome of supremacism and the I/me/mine/mightmakesright worldview that spawns it.🌼
🎯
" Breaking points thus come, just not for capital itself. " Etc. Hey! This sounds very good! Thank you for Subscribing to me; I just put something up about "capital." Did you read that? I would not have the patience to read all of that in the original so this is really valuable. Much of it agrees with what I thik although I never got past like 20 pages of vol. 1 and I sure did not get to vol 3. One thing I have arrived at through my experience of mostly having some kind of big huge social problem and no job to speak of is that the "Revolution" stuff in Marx is just plain wrong. I have been around working class persons a little bit more than the average upper-middle class fellow and working class persons do not have the scope to conceive of revolution. They just do not think that way. I have never seen any evidence of it. So that is just a misunderstanding of what human beings are like. I generally say "marx is 1/2 right, 1/2 wrong." Also, to you, my new subscriber I just want to add that, when I read Marx & Engels originally (1980s) I noticed the appreciation they had for human feeling and for understanding things in life outside of the intellect. For example, Marx talks about the "sensuous" quality of things a lot (which does not really survive as that sort of language is archaic now) and from what I read you have some sensitivity to that. Well, good luck in jolly old England, sir!