By Frédéric Lordon
Bringing Marx and Spinoza to undergo on paintings, employment and capitalism
Why do humans paintings for people? This likely naïve query is more challenging to respond to than one may possibly in the beginning think, and it lies on the center of Lordon's Willing Slaves of Capital.
To supplement Marx's partial solutions, particularly within the face of the disconcerting spectacle of the engaged, enthusiastic worker, Lordon brings to endure a ‘Spinozist anthropology’ that unearths the elemental position of impacts and passions within the employment courting, reconceptualizing capitalist exploitation because the catch and remoulding of desire.
A completely materialist interpreting of Spinoza's Ethics permits Lordon to debunk notions of person autonomy and self-determination whereas at the same time saving the guidelines of political freedom and liberation from capitalist exploitation. Willing Slaves of Capital is a daring inspiration to reconsider capitalism and its transcendence at the foundation of the modern event of labor.
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Extra info for Willing Slaves of Capital: Spinoza and Marx on Desire
Example text
It appears that early capitalism faced considerable difficulty in persuading people to adopt regular, disciplined employment, and that resistance to full-time work persisted well into the twentieth century, particularly in industrial sectors that had traditionally relied on casual labourers. The history of capitalism is a history involving the gradual reconciliation of individuals with the sacrifices of the working day. This was not a smooth process, but a struggle requiring a severe restructuring of workers’ habits: ‘In all these ways – by the division of labour; the supervision of labour; fines; bells and clocks; money incentives; preachings and schoolings; the suppression of fairs and sports – new labour habits were formed’ (Thompson, 1967: 90).
The value of historical perspectives is that they allow us to achieve some critical distance from the current work-centred state of affairs. Weeks suggests that Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is particularly valuable in this regard, with its references to periods before and after the heyday of the Protestant work ethic inviting readers to grasp the peculiarity of modern society’s attachment to work. Readers are invited to reflect forwards, and consider the lofty status of work from the standpoint of the values inherent in the old, traditional society.
Unless humans can acquire the scope to direct them towards humane, societal ends, the savings in free-time provided by capitalism’s productive development are essentially meaningless. A politics of time is necessary because ‘the development of the productive forces may, of itself, reduce the amount of labour that is necessary [but] it cannot, of itself, create the conditions which will make this liberation of time a liberation for all’ (Gorz, 1989: 185). Gorz himself is perhaps best known for advocating a proposal for a politically co-ordinated reduction of working hours, to take place on a society-wide scale.