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RSA Animate – Crisis of Capitalism

By on Monday, June 28th, 2010

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In this short RSA Animate, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism, towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane. View his full lecture at the RSA. Download a transcript of this video (pdf).



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  • pra

    You are absolutely right!

    And this is so unfair and untruth to call this phonomenon a capitalism.

    It's not a case of capitalism. It's a case of dirty governments and dirty agreements which let bankers give the credits 10 times larger than the amount of money they really have! And the money get back to them and the proccess starts again…

    This is not the capitalism – this is a crime! Capitalism is good as far as the monetary system is honest.

  • Chazwyman

    There is no such thing as money as you conceive it. ALL money is a promise, it is debt. Harvey has got it right and your dream of REAL MONEY is false.

  • Chazwyman

    Your comments are ridiculous. You are blaming governments for inaction. The trouble is that countries suffer if they were to have worked alone.
    The monetary system is not honest and cannot be. Capitalism is based on this dishonesty.

  • Chazwyman

    You are confusing two things.
    Marx was a brilliant economist. His method predicts the crises of capitalism.
    The working out of communism by the totalitarian revolutions failed to implement a successful alternative simply because they modelled their economies on a capitalist framework. The soviet union was State Capitalism. That is at the heart of its failure. They had a massive crisis in the late 20thC no less damaging than world capitalism has 2 years ago.
    What Marx understood about capitalism has very little to do with Soviet economics

  • Chazwyman

    why would you think they ought to be?

  • Chazwyman

    Its simple enough, even for you. Look again. Credit Cards are a response to Wage depression. They are one part of the problem. But only a fool would think that the problem caused by mortgages was someone fundamentally different from that caused by cards.
    You are a fool to see that personal debt from ALL TYPES of credit is a time bomb for individuals and society as a whole.

  • Chazwyman

    You are confused.
    Marx is the gunpowder. You can either use it to mine for facts or use it to blow up hospitals.
    Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Totalitarianism is not the necessary consequence of Marxist theory any more than the invention of gunpowder will lead to war.
    Try to use your brain.

  • http://michaeledwards.org.uk Michael Edwards

    The Harvey animation is brilliant. But who did the drawings? You should credit him/her, at least.
    I just showed it to the students occupying UCL, as a preamble to a lecture of my own. As usual it went over very well indeed.

  • manukai

    I agree with what he tries to explain. Technology where kids learn to use a remote before they learn to walk and talk. Those same kids have now ADHA because the frontal lobe never developed consistently, early developmental interruptions, neglect, physical abuse, separation due to divorce all this develops the early-young brain, many 13-14 year olds have no capacity for empathy no capacity for LOVE, takes no guidance from adults therefore education never happens. Addiction is when, your frontal lobe, poor impulse behavior, misses out on a functional behavior development, thanks this is very helpful working with children who need to know.

  • Sloduca

    This is the weakest RSA Animate of them all and filled with flawed data that does a disservice to its audience. Too bad.

  • kitINstLOUIS

    Um, by humanism, what definition do you mean in this context? Wiki definition #4 “A secular ideology which espouses reason, ethics, and justice, whilst specifically rejecting supernatural and religious dogma as a basis of morality and decision-making.” Or #3 “A variety of perspectives in philosophy and social science which affirm some notion of ‘human nature’ (by contrast with anti-humanism)?” I don’t see how the secular humanist measure of morality is more relativist than Church morality Especially in practice.

  • Rainer Harms

    Hier ein Kursus zur Auffrischung unserer volkswirtschaftlichen Kenntnisse.

  • Redpanda

    What does that have to do with anything?

    People can have extensive knowledge of fields outside their own specialization!

    I think it’s insulting and reducting saying that just because he’s a geographer he should only be speaking about Geography!

  • Redpanda

    What does that have to do with anything?

    People can have extensive knowledge of fields outside their own specialization!

    I think it’s insulting and reducting saying that just because he’s a geographer he should only be speaking about Geography!

  • Carlos

    But that IS exactly capitalism working!

    I think your problem with him is that he over simplified the matters – a thing that economists hate to do – they are always saying that “it’s more complicated that that” (then they are actually as simple as this)!

    I think you are committing a “non sequitur”

  • Carlos

    But that IS exactly capitalism working!

    I think your problem with him is that he over simplified the matters – a thing that economists hate to do – they are always saying that “it’s more complicated that that” (then they are actually as simple as this)!

    I think you are committing a “non sequitur”

  • Carlos

    But that IS exactly capitalism working!

    I think your problem with him is that he over simplified the matters – a thing that economists hate to do – they are always saying that “it’s more complicated that that” (then they are actually as simple as this)!

    I think you are committing a “non sequitur”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZAJLJWZNOBD2OTMH5F6L6CPHXA Summer

    But isn’t Harvey making a point that people who are rich only become richer by propagating problems like the financial “meltdown”? Hedge fund owners become wealthier by speculation, there are more millionaires in India than ever before; as Marx stated, capitalist’s don’t like a barrier, they will ALWAYS figure out a way to circumvent it, because through the power of government and big business, they can write the system and the rules however they want. I think we as people absolutely have the power to change our system — I don’t believe that change can be induced from inside the system, it has to be achieved through a revolution in thought. His last comment, that we as academics and as people who are seriously involved in what is happening in the world, that we must CHANGE HOW WE THINK, should become the resounding theme of our generation. And yet, it is also the hardest change to initiate. Sometimes I think that human nature has always favored stratification, that we will always have a society that builds some up while pulling others down. But hasn’t it reached the breaking point? More resources and more lives are lost to this system than EVER before. When you have a system like capitalism that makes EVERYONE — EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON — incredibly indebted and reliant on how the world works, it makes change almost impossible. Who wants to sacrifice their way of living to make the world better? Most people don’t, and won’t. Harvey should not be criticized for what he is saying — he’s telling us that this is how the system works, and that it will probably continue this way for as long as human society lets it. But what will it take for us to change? Massive drought, depopulation, atomic war? What will happen when the world no longer counts on money and financial capital to survive, and all these numbers and forms of currency become useless? You can’t create water, food, and basic resources out of nothing. And whether we like it or not, this is what our civilization and our survival is built on, and capitalism and its practices are expending them at an exorbitant rate. You have to look at the bigger picture, and the long term. As Harvey says, this system is destroying us, AND WE’RE LETTING IT!

  • Jbanks6

    Well done!

  • http://twitter.com/seedinvestment Start-up Investments

    I looked and you may have a point: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Spain, Ireland, Northern Rock, RBS, LLoyds/HBoS and Lehman Brothers – they should have weighted their risks with more credit card debt instead of all those CDOs and mortgage back securities. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But now we have the under 30s to kick-start and bolster the property and wider free market, everything will be tickety-boo again before you know it.

  • http://twitter.com/seedinvestment Start-up Investments

    Never added up? Try to avoid those £1 calculators from Tesco.

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  • HelenaSophia

    This planet of ours has become a ‘for-profit-world’ in which the highest
    principle is the nature of profit. Unfortunately there seems to be no
    real dissent about that, as people still believe that if profits are
    made, they will get a job and be able to make a living.

    Truth is, any economy must be able to sustain itself, a balance of goods and services within national boundaries will ensure prosperity. Unfortunately though, capitalists only care about ‘CAPITAL’. If they would care about humans, they would be called ‘Humanists’ or even more so Philanthropists. “Philanthropy etymologically means “the love of humanity”, in the
    sense of “what it is to be human”, the essence of our humanity. In
    modern practical terms, it is “private initiatives for public good,
    focusing on quality of life”—balancing the social-scientific aspect
    emphasized in the twentieth century, with the long-traditional and
    original humanistic core of the word’s ancient coinage.” From Wiki.
    So Capitalism is a dead end. It will kill humanity, unless humanity rids itself from this collective chemical imbalance of the brains of the majority.
    You don’t need to be ‘Communist’ to see that ‘Capitalism’ is poisonous. Capitalism always has this stench of illegal wars, outsourcing of jobs, cutting of social services, deterioration of common wealth and subsequent shifting of equity towards those who already have everything you can possibly own.
    It is a Fantasy world – Disney for grown ups. The eternal capitalist lie.
    But hang in there! Soon there will be tons of job openings in the military/mercenary/security sector of countries all over the planet. Because Capitalism needs to be defended against ‘Communists’, ‘Terrorists’, LGBT-folk, and any form of restrictions or regulations.
    Imagine two Grave Stones. One says “Communism  1917 – 1989″, the other one reads “Capitalism  0 – 2012″. Capitalism would only be a winner in terms of longevity, but that longevity was artificially enforced by executive powers – police, military and the judiciary.

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    Holy cow. Socialism?

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  • http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk The RSA

    Thank you for your email. I’m out of the office. I’ll be back in the office on Monday 15th Aug.
    The RSA combines thought leadership with social innovation to further human progress. Building on our 250 year history as a beacon for enlightenment values, we undertake influential and varied research projects and host the UK’s most ambitious free lecture series. Our work is supported by 27,000 Fellows, an international network of influencers and innovators from every field and background.
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    Please consider the environment before printing this email.

  • Mnr Montpelier

    No “isms” are corrupt; human beings are. Corruption begins in the mind and heart of an individual and expands to others like an infection when the leader has both power and wealth. Money is not evil; the love of money indeed is. If I want the world to change, change must begin in me.

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  • Nico

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  • Vincent Buscarello

    wait wut. too much Hayek? He completely ignores the libertarian/austrian school of economics here. Harvey is interesting but his clustering of neoliberals into one big ball is his intelectual weak point. its very upsetting. and Im not even from the austrian school.

  • Vincent Buscarello

    systemic risks =/= internal accumulation IMO

  • Vincent Buscarello

    OK last angry comment. Our banks are cheating us so we have to join and anti capitalist organization.

    AKA if Chewbaca does not make sense, you must aquit. this guy is silly. Smart, but really makes some huge leaps.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Clyde/653689509 Mike Clyde

    He fails to mention that never has man lived so well and prospered so much under anything else but  Capitalism. Marxism has always (read your history) lead to a tyrannical dictator form of government.
    “The problem with Capitalism is the Capitalist. The problem with Socialism and Marxism is Socialism and Marxism”

  • Pk

    Good Animation. Jerky irrational thoughts. Damaged brain?

  • Rk

    Why is the article titled “Crisis of capitalism”.. it should have been titled “Crisis of socialism”..

  • AlphaDave

    That’s gibberish.

  • AlphaDave

    You are right.  This presentation tries to identify a bigger systemic problem when the real problem is obvious — too much debt.  The U.S. government encouraged lenders to grant mortgages to households without the ability to repay.  They still do, backing almost all mortgages through Freddie and Fannie.  Governments around the world are deeply in debt because they promise more to their people than they can deliver without going deeply in debt.  This is not a crisis of capitalism but of socialism.   The problem is so much simpler than the presentation, but the author started out looking for confirming evidence to condemn capitalism. 

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