Читать книгу Karl Polanyi - Группа авторов - Страница 13

Although it may be asserted that, in the future, capitalism will be an unviable system for a growing part of the population, in both ecological and economic terms, that does not tell us anything about the potential alternatives. Karl Polanyi’s thoughts about a just and free society proceeded from the notion that humankind – as he firmly believed at the time – would never again embark on a path of radical economic liberalisation after the experience of dictatorship and war. Against this backdrop, he considered industrial society to be an adequate basis from which a just and free society could eventually emerge. As for the first point, we have by now been disabused: financial market capitalism has once again taken economic liberalisation to new extremes. Concerning the second point, the industrialisation of life in social and ecological terms has become a problem in its own right, one which is not rooted in the ‘market economy’ alone. This has triggered a critique of civilisation of a different sort, one that addresses both destructive and emancipatory potentials of technological developments: the sharing economy can create a culture of the commons and shared use or establish platforms as new monopolies. Knowledge can be accessible to all via Wikipedia or facilitate – through standardisation – the emergence of global educational corporations which expropriate and concentrate knowledge. Robots can make work easier, and yet technology allows for total surveillance.

This is precisely what makes Polanyi’s pluralist, socialist vision of ‘Freedom in a Complex Society’ (Polanyi 1944/2001, p. 257) so relevant when it comes to contemplating a post-capitalist society based on emancipation and solidarity. In contrast to Polanyi’s times, however, nowadays we look back at a history of (state-)socialism, which distorted and discredited the original socialist idea of equality, freedom, solidarity. Contemplating a reorganisation of society in an emancipatory sense also implies addressing the historical experience of state-socialist dictatorships and searching for paths towards a new society which combine the freedom of the individual with social justice and opportunities for everyone to develop and realise their full potential.

Karl Polanyi’s crucial contribution, which he elaborates on in the last pages of The Great Transformation and which is certainly worth rediscovering, consists of a passionate appeal against dogmatism and simplification. It is a plea for dialectics and pragmatism. The criticism of a misguided faith in the self-regulating forces of the market must not lead to a rejection of markets as such. The critique of excessive individualism inherent in liberal thought must not let us forget the importance of the right to non-conformity and the protection of minorities. At the same time, there is no way around the fact that a society can only be built based on ‘planning’, ‘regulation’, and ‘control’ (Polanyi 1944/2001, p. 265) and a state capable of acting, otherwise it is the law of the jungle that governs: digital platforms displace their competitors through tax and social dumping; cycling remains a niche for the environmentally conscious while flying continues to be subsidised. In short, without ‘planning’, ‘regulation’, and ‘control’, that ‘freedom in a complex society’ is simply not possible, at least not if it is to be more than the individual freedom of the privileged.