Friday 2 June 2017
Feudalism
Apropros of something, abandoning feudalism as a conceptual schema because different and contradictory interpretations of the word exist seems on the same level as abandoning 'capitalism' as a conceptual schema because different and contradictory interpretations of the word exist, or abandoning 'capital', 'value' or 'profit' as analytical categories because varying interpretations of them exist.
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Please explain this 'apropos.'
ReplyDeleteI am fascinated by whom would say such a thing as this post indignantly attacks. The post itself seems approximately accurate.
A word which is ideologically relevant will be contested. There is little reason to fear this, unless one would prefer to remain apart from political commitments.
As 'feudalism' is a fairly technical term, that is considered in several ways, it can be taken seriously. However, portrayals of 'feudalism' are often slightly misleading. Things such as aristocratic heritage are merely pseudo-economic, ultimately, and hence ultimately irrelevant to the underlying forces that motivate the economy. In this sense, by pretending to have economic relevance these regimes merely subjugate themselves to the economy, meaning that later they can easily be merged into the similarly passive bourgeois state. Feudalism is for Marx, etc., a society where people are still highly active - only, within stringently defined circles. However, these circles are often economically hollow, and wait to be filled. It is somewhat similar to the 'bourgeois family,' and the critique of both does tend to appear in proximity. However, in some ways it also expresses elements of the 'bourgeois economy.'
As we mentioned recently, capitalism itself often abstracts from particular traits of things, leaving only abstractions. Humans then have to pretend that this is substantial and 'normal,' or that capitalism does not do this and the things are still there. They will throw capitalism under a bus, however it rose again from that, because it was too strong for such triviality. Nonetheless, in the process the economic is conflated with other things, or tampered with. Hence, the spectre of 'feudalism' arises, or 'foreign' intrusion on an established economic form. However, in 'feudalism' this is displayed, as in capitalism it is hidden because the economy almost invites intrusion.