Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom
Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom
Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom
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Criticism restores the subject to the centre. By criticising,<br />
humans say 'We are the negated creators, but we reject that<br />
negation. All social phenomena exist because we have made<br />
them: money or the state are just as much human products as<br />
the motor-car. They depend on our creation for their existence.<br />
And if we made them, we can change them.'<br />
There is still a question, though. We have created the social<br />
world around us, but are we stuck with our own creations<br />
(Frankenstein), or do they depend on our constant re-creation<br />
(Borges)? Do we have to make a distinction between some<br />
creations (for example, the state or money) and others (the<br />
car, say)?<br />
Money is a form of social relations, a way in which we relate<br />
to one another. When we buy something and pay for it with<br />
money, we establish a certain form of relation with the producer<br />
of the thing we buy. If we steal the thing, we establish a different<br />
sort of relation with her, and if we receive it as a present yet<br />
another, different relation. The sort of relationship we establish<br />
does not depend either on the thing bought, stolen, or received,<br />
nor on the materiality of any money involved (notes or coins).<br />
When we say that money is a form of social relations, we say,<br />
then, that it is a form that we create and re-create, a form that<br />
depends not just on our initial creation but on our constant<br />
re-creation. The same can be said of the state or capital.<br />
Is a car also a form of social relations that we constantly<br />
create and re-create? Clearly, cars have a certain materiality,<br />
as indeed money has a certain materiality. However, the car is<br />
also a way in which we relate to other people - to the workers<br />
who produced it, when we buy it, but also to the people around<br />
us, our family and friends, people in the street or in the town,<br />
when we use it. We could use it as a sculpture or for planting<br />
flowers, in which case we would no longer be re-creating the<br />
social relations indicated by the concept of 'car'.<br />
To put it in different terms: criticism is the recovery of verbs.<br />
Our vision of the world is dominated by nouns, by things:<br />
money, state, car, wall, computer, food, and so on. The: doing,<br />
creating, painting, cooking, organising, bricklaying, teaching,<br />
and so on are forgotten. Each noun implies the suppression<br />
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