Uncertainty is wondrous, and.. certainty, were it to be real, would be moral death. Immanuel Wallerstein More Quotes by Immanuel Wallerstein More Quotes From 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. Immanuel Wallerstein historical humanity men 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. Immanuel Wallerstein pertinent-questions historical people What could me more plausible than a line of reasoning which argues that the explanation of the origin of a system was to achieve an end that has in fact been achieved? Immanuel Wallerstein lines arguing facts We can tentatively credit capitalist civilization with a positive, if very geographically uneven, record in the struggle against disease. Immanuel Wallerstein credit struggle civilization The employment rates are in very bad shape. We vastly underestimate the unemployment Immanuel Wallerstein unemployment underestimate shapes The mode of reconciling the promise of ever-increasing reward for the cadres and the demands of the working classes for a quid pro quo for their loyalty to the state was to offer the latter a small piece of the pie. Immanuel Wallerstein pie loyalty class So much were employers of wage-labor unenthusiastic about proletarianization that, in addition to fostering the gender age division of labor, they also encouraged, in their employment patters and through their influence in the political arena, recognition of defined ethnic groups, seeking to link them to specific allocated roles in the labor-force, with different levels of real remuneration for their work. Ethnicity created a cultural crust which consolidated the patterns of semi-proletarian household structures. Immanuel Wallerstein ethnicity division-of-labor real That is why we may say that the historical development of capitalism has involved the thrust towards the commodification of everything. Immanuel Wallerstein development historical may The very concept of universal formal education is a product (and a relatively late product) of the capitalist world-economy. Immanuel Wallerstein economy formal world 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. Immanuel Wallerstein historical wish world The concept that one ought to restrict one's political involvement to one's own state was deeply antithetical to those who were pursuing the accumulation of capital for its own sake. Immanuel Wallerstein political states sake 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. Immanuel Wallerstein religious self law A second variety concentrated on presumed major transformations of the capitalist system as of some recent point in time, in which the whole earlier point of time served as a mythologized foil against which to treat the empirical reality of the present. Immanuel Wallerstein treats transformation reality 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. Immanuel Wallerstein favors religious self What can be done? Well, the governments of the world can undertake what amounts to a vast clean-up campaign and a vast campaign of organic renewal. The problem is the cost of an effective operation, which is enormous, and thus must be paid by someone via some form of taxes. Immanuel Wallerstein environmental campaigns government An individual or a group of individuals might of course decide at any time that they would like to invest capital with the objective of acquiring still more capital. But, before a certain moment in historical time, it had never been easy for such individuals to do this successfully. Immanuel Wallerstein groups historical might The way in which these two practices contain each other is that it has always been possible to use the one against the other: to use racism-sexism to prevent universalism from moving too far in the direction of egalitarianism; to use universalism to prevent racism-sexism from moving too far in the direction of a caste system that would inhibit the work force mobility so necessary for the capitalist accumulation process. Immanuel Wallerstein practice two moving
