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Quote by Immanuel Wallerstein

“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.”

Quote by Immanuel Wallerstein

Book:Capistalist Civilisation

Work

Capistalist Civilisation

This book delves into the intricacies of a civilization driven by capitalist principles, examining its economic structures, social dynamics, and the impact of capitalism on various aspects of life within this civilization. more

Author

Immanuel Wallerstein

Immanuel Wallerstein is a renowned American sociologist known for his contributions to world-systems theory. His research focuses on globalization and international relations, profoundly influencing the understanding of the modern world order. more

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“The break from the supposedly culturally-narrow religious bases of knowledge in favor of supposedly trans-cultural scientific bases of knowledge served as the self-justification of a particularly pernicious form of cultural imperialism.”

Self Form Religious Break Capitalism Bases Favors Justification Imperialism Trans Pernicious Self Justification

Author:Immanuel Wallerstein

“Scientific culture created a framework within which individual mobility was possible without threatening hierarchical work-force allocation. On the contrary, meritocracy reinforced hierarchy. Finally, meritocracy as an operation and scientific culture as an ideology created veils that hindered perception of the underlying operations of historical capitalism.”

Culture Individual Force Perception Capitalism Historical Contrary Ideology Operations Threatening Veils Hierarchy Framework Mobility Meritocracy Allocation

Author:Immanuel Wallerstein

“The first and probably most fundamental aspect of this crisis is that we are now close to the commodification of everything. That is, historical capitalism is in crisis precisely because, in pursuing the endless accumulation of capital, it is beginning to approximate that state of being Adam Smith asserted was 'natural' to man but which has never historically existed. The 'propensity [of humanity] to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another' has entered into domains and zones previously untouched, and the pressure to expand commodification is relatively unchecked.”

Men Firsts States Humanity Natural One Thing Capitalism Aspect Pressure Crisis Fundamentals Historical Endless Zone Adam Truck Domain Accumulation Propensity Commodification

Author:Immanuel Wallerstein

“This is a steady, ceaseless process, impossible to contain as long as the economy driven by the endless accumulation of capital. The system may prolong its life by slowing down some of the activities which are wearing it out, but death always looms somewhere on the horizon.”

May Long Process Economy Impossible Activity Capitalism Driven Endless Horizon Steady Slow Down Accumulation Slowing

Author:Immanuel Wallerstein

“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.”

Ideas Progress Benefits Capitalism Harm Opposition Transition Surprising Justified Wipe Feudalism Commodification

Book:Capistalist Civilisation

Source: Capistalist Civilisation

“What is surprising is that their ideological opponents, the Marxists - the anti-liberals, the representatives of the oppressed working classes - believed in progress with at least as much passion as the liberals.”

Passion Class Progress Capitalism Opponents Surprising Representatives Oppressed Working Class Ideological Marxist Anti Liberal

Book:Capistalist Civilisation

Source: Capistalist Civilisation

“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.”

Source: Capistalist Civilisation

“I rather wish to rest my case on material considerations, not those of the social future but those of the actual historical period of the capitalist world-economy.”

World Wish Social Cases Economy Materials Periods Capitalism Historical Consideration Capitalist World Economy

Book:Capistalist Civilisation

Source: Capistalist Civilisation

“The second reason why we haven't observed the growing gap is that our historical and social science analyses have concentrated on what has been happening within the 'middle classes' - that is, to that ten to fifteen percent of the population of the world-economy who consumed more surplus than they themselves produced. Within this sector there really has been a relatively dramatic flattening of the curve between the very top (less than one percent of the total population) and the truly 'middle' segments, or cadres (the rest of the ten to fifteen percent).”

“We must distinguish between the kind of structural transformation that would leave in place (even increase) the realities of the exploitation of labor, and one that would undo this kind of exploitation or at least radically reduce it”

Kind Reality Capitalism Labor Increase Transformation Exploitation

Book:Capistalist Civilisation

Source: Capistalist Civilisation