Techno-Feudalism??
A common idea being promoted by some on the Left and not-so-Left is that the world system is no longer capitalist. Instead icapitalism has been superceded by a new economy , a return to Feudalism with new technology. The essay below refuting this was written by a revolutionary comrade. It is followed by my statement on what the political implications of this flawed analysis are.
“This silly idea that “this isn’t capitalism anymore; it’s a kind of techno-feudalism now” discourse is troubling for two reasons.
How did Feudalism Actually Function?
First of all It is false, since this right now is simply capitalism, andimplying that “real” capitalism is somehow OK and progressive while feudalism is terribly awful and backwards.
To qualify as feudalism, a ruling-class figure (a lord of some kind) must use their own direct force or threat of force to extract some surplus from the producers. Each of the lords brings a bit of his own state power to bear directly onto the serf to get grain, goats, chickens, vegetables, or labor. Armed thugs working for the lord come to the serf and demand this fraction of the serf’s productivity.
The Economy IS Capitalist !
But that is not what is occurring today, for us: The boss/owner pays us less in wages/benefits than our labor creates for the boss. No armed threats were used to take that surplus (profits) out of your productivity, it was simply the normal functioning of the market that did that to you. These all-pervasive market pressures, that govern all employers and all workers, existed long before your current boss was even born. This is not feudalism, it is simply capitalism.
Is Capitalism Better Than Feudalism?
In addition to the inaccuracy of this “neo-feudal” or “techno-feudal” characterization of today’s economy, it is also a glaring problem to imply that “real” capitalism was somehow OK or good or nice or progressive or just, while feudalism was cruel, unjust, evil and harsh.That’s a pro-capitalist message, and we should reject it. Let’s be perfectly clear — capitalism massacres and brutalizes WAY, WAY more victims around the world than feudalism ever did (even when we include other variations beyond European medieval feudalism such as Japan and others).
The reason we can confidently say that capitalism is much worse (for the people at the bottom who do all the work) is because there are real limits to the ruling class’s consumption under feudalism, limiting how much of the surplus they can take from the producers, while in capitalism, since profits are re-invested so as to expand production, there is no such built-in limit to how much the ruling capitalists can squeeze from workers.Since the feudal ruling class uses the extracted surplus to eat, to trade for nifty luxuries, to pay armed retainers and enforcers, and to sometimes wage warfare against neighboring lords, there is no bottomless pit for wealth to be poured into, since there is only so much food that the lord is able to eat, only room for a small number of tapestries or vases or statues in the castle, only space in the stables for a manageable number of horses, etc. All the lord’s stuff is there for it to be used, not as an investment to improve production.
Although the capitalist’s household consumption needs are similar to the feudal lord’s, the capitalist does not have the same limits on how much surplus can be taken and used because the capitalist is immediately plowing all the surplus extracted right back into expanding production, investing in better technology, larger productive facilities, greater division-of-labor (hence more employed workers), buying more ships or storefronts, etc, etc. as a consequence of economic competition.
Limitations of Exploitation Under Feudalism
So the feudal lord did not have an incredibly strong economic pressure to go overseas and force foreigners into chattel slavery or to capture new markets to sell manufactured commodities or to gain access to new cheap raw materials. The feudal lord stops his economic expansion once he has his family well-fed, well protected, and the lands of his fiefdom secured.But the capitalist has no such limits.
Horrors of Capitalism
“Only capitalism, not feudalism, is capable of horrors of such magnitude.”
Look at today: Since they are running out of new lands, new populations that are outside of global capitalism, today’s captains-of-industry are seriously looking to space and lunar mining, asteroid mining, space tourism, and other ways to expand. What drives this voracious and never-satisfied expansionist urge? It’s simply the market and global economic competition, a force that did not really govern the behavior of feudal lords.Industrial war and nuclear weapons, racial extermination, ultra-rapid despoliation of our Earth’s natural world, these horrors are only really possible thanks to putting the logic of tha capitalist market together with industrial technology. Only capitalism, not feudalism, is capable of horrors of such magnitude.”
Additional note: The analysis from the statement above follows Marx’s analysis. He saw the horrors of slavery, genocide etc. as flowing from the primitive accumulation on which capitalism was based :
“The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation.”
This analysis does NOT mean that anyone should favor a return to actual Feudalism ! Such a return would be impossible. Also as horrific as capitalism was and is, it creates the conditions needed for its overthrow and creation of communism. It creates the technology that can be the basis of ecologically sane abundance if democratically controlled for human needs. It also creates the class that can overthrow the capitalist class and its system: the international working class. As Marx put it “ capitalism first of all creates its own gravediggers.”
Strategic Implications of Techno-Feudalism
The “ Techno-Feudalism” analysis ultimately justifies capitalism as noted above. It has another severe political problem: The implication of TechnoFeudalism is that the exploited group are consumers ( everyone who has their data stolen from them etc.). It leads to a different strategic orientation from Marxism. Marxists see the working class as the exploited class with the potential power to overturn the system by extending their fight against exploitation to a fight to END exploitation by expropriating the capitalist class. If instead consumers of all classes are the group exploited by the system, the transformative movement is no longer a working class movement. It leads to a multi-class or middle class orientation and muddles the politics. It leads away from support to workplace struggle and other social struggles that highlight the interests of the working class AGAINST the capitalist class.
