{"id":16246,"date":"2018-02-01T13:32:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T21:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16246"},"modified":"2018-02-01T13:32:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T21:32:13","slug":"a-less-than-utopian-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-less-than-utopian-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"A less-than-utopian vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 15, 2000, I was standing on the corner of 20th<\/sup> and I Streets in Washington DC. Like many other college students that weekend, I had come out to see what the fuss was all about.<\/p>\n

All around me, there were thousands of protesters on the street, demonstrating against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. As I watched, police officers in riot gear moved through the crowd and blocked off the street. My friends standing on the opposite corner were part of a mass-arrest, simply because they were standing there.<\/p>\n

Part of the backdrop of these law enforcement measures was that this was the year after the infamous \u201cBattle of Seattle\u201d protests against the World Trade Organization of 1999, which had turned violent. They weren\u2019t taking any chances in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

The IMF and World Bank headquarters are located in Washington DC and inside their well-appointed, heavily protected walls, were globalists, industrialists, economists and other members of the system of haute finance<\/em>. On the streets was a strange combination of socialists, anarchists, students groups, church groups, trade union members, and some who had just come for the show.<\/p>\n

This scene lays out the essential complexity and confusion around issues of economic theory and the social, political and spiritual results of it. This is the point that Fred Block makes in his excellent introduction to \u201cThe Great Transformation\u201d by Karl Polanyi. He writes, \u201cBecause of the very richness of this book, it is futile to try to summarize it; the best that can be done here is to elaborate some of the main strands of Polanyi\u2019s argument.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

As I read chapters of this book, I felt as if I had taken a walk through 150 years of Western history, gotten baptized in economic theory, and returned again to that street corner in Washington DC, where the amount of stimuli, passion and debate was both edifying and dizzying.<\/p>\n

One of the key ideas that Polanyi brings up is that, \u201cFor a century, the dynamics of modern society was governed by a double movement: the market expanded continuously but this movement was met by a countermovement\u2026 for the protection of society.\u201d[2]<\/a> To put it another way, as the free-market moved and expanded, seeking greater influence in the lives of people and the plans of governments, there was always a \u201ccountermovement\u201d, or a reaction. This reaction, for Polanyi has to do with the self-preservation of people, society, morals and a decent way of life.<\/p>\n

He writes, \u201cunder the guild system, as under every other economic system in previous history, the motives and circumstances of productive activities were embedded in the general organization of society.\u201d[3]<\/a> This \u201cembeddedness\u201d is a key idea for Polanyi because it means that the market and economy are meant to serve and benefit people, rather than, allowing it to become \u201cdis-embedded\u201d, or free from social, political and moral concerns.<\/p>\n

Polanyi describes \u201cfictitious commodities\u201d, of land, labor and money, which previous to the growth of the \u201cfree market\u201d were not commodities at all. They were social realities, which were interconnected. What Polanyi is doing in his historical overview and critique of free market capitalism, is showing the insidious ways that the \u201claissez-faire\u201d economy commoditizes people, which he believes is wrong.<\/p>\n

There is an underlying moral argument to what Polanyi is doing, and it may stem from his life-long commitment as a Socialist. As Dominic Erdozain has argued in his book, \u201cMarx was both a materialist and a moralist\u2026 his materialism emerged from his moralism.\u201d[4]<\/a> Throughout his writing, Polanyi exhibits a moral concern (especially for those who will be affected adversely by macro-economic policy), which colors and informs his historical, sociological and economic thinking.<\/p>\n

Indeed, in his review of the book, Economist Greg Clark uses this as a cudgel. He writes, \u201cThe Great Transformation<\/em> has attained the status of a classic in branches of sociology, political science, and anthropology. Stacks of it await undergraduate initiates each year in college bookstores. … Yet in economics the work is unknown \u2014 or, when discussed, derided. Thus the cruel irony of the term “social sciences.”[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Clark is using as critique, the way that Polanyi includes and allows a moral vision to enter into his pursuit of \u201cthe dismal science\u201d, as economics has been called. However, it is Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel prize winning economist who writes in the foreword to this book that, \u201cEconomic science and economic history have come to recognize the validity of Polanyi\u2019s key contentions.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Clearly, even within the field, disagreements will continue over the assertions that Polanyi makes in this book. He is essentially undermining a kind of liberal economic orthodoxy, \u201cthe Washington Consensus\u201d, which holds that free markets, operating free of regulation or constraint, will eventually right themselves and offer the broadest benefits to the most people. Polanyi stands against this assertion and belief.<\/p>\n

One thing that I really appreciate about his view, is the way that he is so anti-deterministic. He doesn\u2019t let utopian thinking, or solutions that are \u201ctoo tidy\u201d to sway him. He writes, \u201cOur thesis is that the idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark Utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society\u2026\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

The reason that I resonate with his argument, is that it takes seriously the human condition, and our tendencies not to act our best. In cold, economic theory, there is certainly a world where everything works \u201cperfectly\u201d. But in the day to day lived reality that people experience, \u201cthings fall apart\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a college student witnessing those protests all those years ago, I was still swept up in utopian schemes and dreams. This is the usual way with youth and inexperience. But, what is surprising in Polanyi\u2019s book, is the way that he turns the table on this idea. He suggests, in the end, that it is the consensus around the benefits and perfection of unfettered free-market capitalism that is actually unhelpfully idealistic.<\/p>\n

In the end, I believe that Christians, as people of hope, even \u201cideal\u201d hope, are also called to engage the world as we find it. To step into the messiness of life, for the sake of those that God loves. I seek to lead institutions that hold these two parts together, hope and action.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), xxiii.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), 136.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), 73.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Dominic Erdozain,\u00a0The Soul of Doubt<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 223.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Gregory Clark, review of\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>, by Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The New York Sun<\/em>, June 4, 2008, 11,\u00a0http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/arts\/reconsiderations-the-great-transformation-by-karl\/79250\/<\/a>\u00a0(accessed February 1, 2018).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), xiii.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Karl Polanyi,\u00a0The Great Transformation<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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