Philosophy Now Forum

Peter Benson tells us how critiques of both Marx and capitalist society have evolved in France, with special reference to Jean Baudrillard and Bernard Stiegler.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/107/Fr ... st-Marxism

The thing that comes to mind with the mention of French Post-Marxism is when French President Mitterrand nationalized the banks in 1982. What probably ushered in post-Marxist France is Mitterrand's reversal and the re-privatization of banks five years later. He may have anticipated the collapse of Marxism around the world, seeing that it was an impractical way of shaping an economy.

Nevertheless, there still is an ingrained Marxism in France. That is why many French business people who want to get ahead have moved to Britain and have settled in London, where capitalism rings truer.

Reading the article now, one thing caught my interest. Peter Benson mentions in the part about Baudrillard being too far behind that "in Europe and America this phase of social mobility has now ceased and the majority of people will remain in the social class into which they were born".

If so, why?
Benson moves on without any further comment about it.

It does seem to be like that, if I look in the Scandinavian country where I live, or at least it has been like that for a couple of decades. From the 20's to maybe the 70's there was a massive class movement upwards. People with humble backgrounds but some brains was able to get education and move up, forming a kind of middle class of advanced employees, engineers, teachers and similar. Some even mixed with the upper classes becoming doctors or lawyers.

But at that it has kind of freezed. Still, the eight-to-fivers children seem to become eight-to-fivers. Now having a much tougher time than back in the 90's, due to less spendings on federal services, and the competitions from low-salary countries, the globalization.

The next step upward seem to be gigantic. The upper classes have had their own little journey the last 100 years or so, including faked poverty and red wine drinking in the 60's and 70´s but still - to rise above the eight-to-five was the standard back then and it is the standard now too. Entrepeneurs, artists, university academics as well as pure capitalists and brats almost always come from a similar background, and it seems impossible for a pure middle class person to rise into that. The concept of "getting a job" is so rooted, even though you - in theory - have all kind of chances to start your own business, study in university or do-what-you-really-want-to-do-with-your-life. I have seen it all around me, and I experience it in my own family, with me and my wife being from different backgrounds.

What one can see is a possible move downwards for the middle class to a working class level, with the globalization, but to take the step up into the people that benefits from the globalization - that seems to be really tough.

This is my preliminary thoughts about it, any comments?