Quotessence
Home / Books / Capistalist Civilisation

Capistalist Civilisation

Book by Immanuel Wallerstein · 26 quotes · Capitalism, Historical, World

Filter quotes by topic

AllCapitalismHistoricalWorldHas BeensCapitalistConceptsEconomyProgressStatesWorld EconomyAccumulationBottomCasesCivilizationCommodificationFirstsGroupsIdeasIdeologicalMarxist

Capistalist Civilisation Quotes

“As a matter of law the states recognized no constraints on their legislative scope other than those that were self-imposed. Even where particular state constitutions paid ideological lip service to constraints deriving from religious or natural law doctrines, they reserved to some constitutionally-defined body or person the right to interpret these doctrines.”

PersonsSelfMatterStatesBodyLawNaturalReligiousParticularCapitalismConstitutionPaidLipsDoctrineDefinedScopeConstraintsIdeologicalReservedNatural LawLip Service
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
Create image

“Truth as a cultural ideal has functioned as an opiate, perhaps the only serious opiate of the modern world. Karl Marx said that religion was the opiate of the masses. Raymond Aron retorted that Marxist ideas were in turn the opiate of the intellectuals. There is perspicacity in both these polemical thrusts. But is perspicacity truth? I wish to suggest that perhaps truth has been the real opiate, of both the masses and the intellectuals.”

WorldHas BeensSaidIdeasRealTurnsWishModernSeriousMassCapitalismIdealsHaving FunModern WorldThrustMarxistOpiates
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
Create image

“It is not surprising that liberals believed in progress. The idea of progress justified the entire transition from feudalism to capitalism. It legitimated the breaking of the remaining opposition to the commodification of everything, and it tended to wipe away all the negatives of capitalism on the grounds that the benefits outweighed, by far, the harm.”

IdeasProgressBenefitsCapitalismHarmOppositionTransitionSurprisingJustifiedWipeFeudalismCommodification
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
Create image

“It is, let me say, at the very least by no means self-evident that there is more liberty, equality, and fraternity in the world today than there was one thousand years ago. One might arguably suggest that the opposite is true. I seek to paint no idyll of the worlds before historical capitalism. They were worlds of little liberty, little equality, and little fraternity. The only question is whether historical capitalism represented progress in these regards, or regression.”

WorldYearsMeanLittlesSelfMightTodayLibertyProgressThousandCapitalismYears AgoOppositesLet MeRegardHistoricalPaintThousand YearsEvidentWorld TodayFraternityRegression
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
Create image

“On the one hand, there has been a remarkable expansion of the total production and productivity of food production, and on the other hand an extraordinarily skewed distribution system, substituting medium-run threats for short-term threats for the majority of the world's population, particularly the 50 to 80 percent at the bottom.”

WorldHas BeensHandsRunningTermPercentCapitalismMajorityThreatBottomPopulationProductionsProductivityMediumsRemarkableExpansionDistributionShort TermFood Production
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
Create image

“It seems to me the only pertinent question is: cui bono? It is clear that the size of the privileged strata as a percentage of the whole has grown significantly under historical capitalism. And for these people, the world they know is better on the whole than any their earlier counterparts knew.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWholeSeemsClearCapitalismHistoricalSizePrivilegedPercentagesCounterpartsPertinentPertinent Questions
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
Create image