They say the economy continues to develop
Why is life becoming increasingly difficult and unstable?

About self-destructive capitalism
The most modern and intelligent conversation

This book is a record of an in-depth conversation between leading social philosophers Nancy Fraser and Rael Yegi, exploring big questions about capitalism from a fresh perspective.
It is full of sharp thoughts that provide insight into the complex crises facing society today.


The authors delve into the specifics of what capitalism is and how it works, presenting a coherent and comprehensive theory of why crises are inevitable, and how to approach them critically.
In the process, it is revealed that the social order that capitalism itself established is gradually being eroded by its own self-predatory behavior and is ultimately in danger.


Readers will find Nancy Fraser's contemporary and compelling analysis.
Rael's predictions often leap into discussions that offer unexpected third points or new inspiration through sharp questions and counterarguments.
It will broaden the horizons of thought for those interested in the nature and future of capitalism and the core issues of today's society.

I think 'grand theory work' is really necessary.
It is necessary to expose the structural basis of the multiple crisis tendency as a single social totality, that is, as capitalist society.
We need to somehow create a new understanding of capitalism that integrates the insights of Marxism with those of new paradigms like feminism, ecology, and postcolonialism, while avoiding their respective weaknesses.

--- p.34

Fordism was able to promote working-class consumerism in the core countries only through the semi-proletarianized household, which combined male hired labor with female domestic labor.
It was also thanks to the suppression of the development of consumption of goods in the periphery.
They've rebuilt the entire accumulation strategy by banishing billions of people from the formal economy and forcing them into an informal gray area where capital sucks up enormous amounts of value.

--- p.55

The basic idea is that when we treat something as a commodity produced to be sold, our relationship to that thing and to ourselves changes.
Depersonalization and indifference are examples of such changes, which force us to relate to the world in the context of instrumental values ​​that are in contrast to our intrinsic values.
In this way, the market exercises a qualitative power to structure.
It shapes our ‘worldview’ and the ‘grammar’ of our lives.

--- p.62

Marx delves beneath the hidden realm of exploitation to uncover a far more perplexing realm, which I call 'expropriation.'
If we follow Marx's argument directly, but go further than he did, we see exploitation as another hidden place behind the hidden place.
And if properly understood, the background story of exploitation clearly reveals the structural position of imperialist and racial oppression in capitalist society.

--- p.87

Each component of the institutionalized social order called capitalism is jointly constituted through relationships with one another.
We cannot even think of 'economy' without contrasting it with 'politics', 'production' without contrasting it with 'reproduction', and (non-human) 'nature' without contrasting it with (human) 'society'.
Of course, the boundaries between these 'spaces' change throughout history.
But this change is not limited to simply changing where the economy, production, and society end and politics, reproduction, and nature begin.
In the relationships we form with each other, the nature of each person also changes qualitatively.

--- p.125

Even if it appears to be a crisis to an outside observer, it does not manifest as an actual crisis in history until it is recognized as such by participants within that society.
Only when a critical mass of people concludes that they can no longer endure the same old ways and that something must happen does social action emerge that transcends the limits of the existing social order and opens up the possibility of significant institutional change.

--- p.135

The severe strains on social reproduction today could put people in dire straits.
Many people may respond by hunkering down and building emotional and physical barriers.
The bonds of solidarity can fray and the lines separating 'us' from 'them' can harden.
This is, at least, the impulse behind the current form of reactionary populism.

--- p.171

Consumption in the Northern Hemisphere is energy-intensive, still fueled primarily by coal and oil, now supplemented by oil and natural gas produced through hydraulic fracturing.
Meanwhile, renewable energy is being added here and there, but the total carbon footprint is not being reduced.
The overall results show that the Southern Hemisphere still bears a greater share of the burden of global environmental burden than other regions.

--- p.187

Within feminism, there are campaigns to break the glass ceiling in this context, and the idea of ​​using feminism in advertising, such as 'United Colors of Benetton', is popular.
Employers may view racism or gender domination as a waste of human capital, ignoring talent based on race or gender.
It seems that there is also a way of viewing racism and sexism as obstacles to efficiency and capitalist accumulation.

--- p.201

Many people today talk about emptiness and the loss of human connection.
Such ethical critiques have appeared throughout the history of capitalism, but not all have necessarily formulated progressive or liberating content, and some have been quite conservative, retrospective, or even reactionary.

--- p.236

Capital is nothing more than the congealing of past labor, transformed into a hostile force that dominates living labor.
'Living' human beings are not only producers of commodities, but also producers of capital itself, that very force to which human beings are subject.
And in this context, the past dominates the present.

--- p.246

The normativity of capitalism is not single but multiple.
Every subject in capitalism lives in more than one sphere, and everyone is connected to more than one set of norms.
When crisis tendencies explode and become visible, what people experience is not just material deprivation or instability per se, but also normative conflict.
At times, these conflicts are mitigated through 'internormative isolation'.
At times, it has a solidaristic character in certain 'areas', and at other times, it has a competitive character in other 'areas'.
In 'normal' times, this division persists.
But at other times, including times of overt crisis, the walls crumble and the multiple normativity of capitalism collides head-on.

--- p.270

Every accumulation regime in the history of capitalism has had to deal in one way or another with the inherent tensions that arise between economy and politics, production and reproduction, human society and non-human nature.
If any system has the staying power, the ability to sustain itself historically over an era, it is because it has found ways to mitigate these contradictions or delay them through maneuver.
Sometimes we even find ways to bring something positive out of this tension.

--- p.286

Low-wage, precarious caregiving, once the unpaid burden of middle-class white women, is now shouldered primarily by immigrants and people of color.
But just because there's a significant class component to this issue doesn't mean we should fall back into the oversimplified thinking that class is the "real" issue and race and gender are just secondary phenomena.
Rather, I would like to argue that the proposition is the reverse of what I just said about class.
If gender and race/ethnicity/nationality are being oppressed, then something is seriously wrong.
--- p.309

I remain convinced that there could be a more intrinsic approach, one that involves direct observation of the dynamics of these struggles themselves.
Accordingly, we can assess the liberating potential of each movement by presenting its regressive or non-regressive dynamics.
At this point, the crisis analysis framework should provide a clue.

--- p.324

I have already mentioned the possibility that the deep-rooted contradictions and crises of capitalism can be the driving force behind social movements, but that they can also be addressed in ways that might be perceived as non-regressive or even regressive.
These movements belong to the dynamic of social struggles that question capitalism, but not only some of them are non-liberal; many are quite seriously anti-liberal, even fascist or fundamentalist.

--- p.349

Neoliberalism is not just about economic policy.
It is also a political project that strives to achieve hegemony by uniting historical blocs.
Neoliberalism's preferred strategy is to link its plutocratically exploitative distributional politics with a politics of recognition that can garner widespread support.


Neoliberalism is not a huge lump.
There are progressive and regressive branches of neoliberalism.
The difference appears in terms of recognition.
Both versions promote a distributive politics that primarily benefits the 1%, but one couples this program with a seemingly inclusive politics of recognition, while the other combines it with an overtly exclusionary alternative.
It was the progressive tributaries of neoliberalism in particular that succeeded in defeating not only the anti-neoliberal forces but also the reactionary neoliberal forces and achieving hegemony.

--- p.365

Trump is by no means “working class” in terms of income, assets, resources, and opportunities, but he speaks to the working class in terms of a certain habitus and lifestyle.
In other words, Trump's appeal has to do not only with the way he talks about economic discontent, but also with a certain charisma at a cultural level.
Trump is a kind of 'low-class billionaire'.
A billionaire with the language, attitude, and resentment of the lower class.
So there are aspects of him that don't just seem like scammers.

--- p.379

There is now an opportunity to build a counter-hegemonic bloc centered around a progressive populist project.
By combining an egalitarian, pro-working-class economic orientation with an inclusive, non-hierarchical recognition politics orientation into a single project, this formation of forces will at least have a fighting chance of uniting the entire working class.

--- p.388

The working masses will be immersed in an unprecedentedly expanded pathology: hatred born of resentment and expressed in scapegoating, violence exploding with every bout of oppression, a world of evil and cruelty where solidarity is almost extinct.
To avoid this fate, we must not only break decisively with the neoliberal economy, but also with the various forms of recognition politics that have recently served to support it.
We must break away not only from exclusionary bloodline nationalism, but also from liberal-meritocracy individualism.

--- p.400