Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

opposite, of that possible coming-to-oneself, being-with-oneself,
:lgainst which alienation can be measured' (Bloch 1964 (2): 113).
This other side is not mere potential or possibility. The other
side is potential, it is an anticipation of the world that might exist,
but to treat it as mere possibility leaves us dangerously in the
l if, postpones yet again the realisation of this potential to some
vague and undetermined future. A potential that is not a live
antagonism, a living struggle, is worth nothing. We all have the
potential to become famous basketball players or distinguished
neurosurgeons, but if this potential has no material expression
it becomes a self-deceptive dream. To understand abstraction as
present process means that that which is abstracted exists not
just as potential, but as real force in the present.
It is this dark side, not just as mere potential but as present
force, that we are interested in. This brings us back to our starting-point:
the dual character of labour, as abstract labour and
useful or concrete labour, or as alienated labour and conscious
life-activity. In the previous sections, we have focused on abstract
labour as the force that weaves the web of domination. Now
it is time to turn to the other side: useful or concrete labour,
conscious life-activity, concrete doing. This is the turning-point
in the argument.
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