Schlagwort: Schulden

»It is probable that the majority of the difficulties of contemporary ethnology and anthropology arise from their approaching the ›facts‹, the ›givens‹ of (descriptive) ethnography, without taking the theoretical precaution of constructing the concept of their object: this omission commits them to projecting on to reality the categories which define the economic for them in practice, i.e., the categories of the economics of contemporary society, which to make matters worse, are often themselves empiricist. This is enough to multiply aporia.« (Althusser/Balibar, Reading Capital)

»The habit of always saying ›please‹ and ›thank you‹ first began to take hold during the commercial revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuriesamong those very middle classes who were largely responsible for it. It is the language of bureaus, shops, and offices, and over the course of the last five hundred years it has spread across the world along with them. It is also merely one token of a much larger philosophy, a set of assumptions of what humans are and what they owe one another, that have by now become so deeply ingrained that we cannot see them .« (Graeber 2011, 124)

I had already written an addendum for the German version of the review I wrote of David Graeber’s Debt for the newspaper ak – analyse und kritik. Some points had only been touched upon; in the case of others, my intent was known only to those familiar with certain debates (alluded to between the lines). For that reason, I wrote a short, summary addendum.[1. Whoever has not read my ak review should read it first. I do not explicitly deal here with some points that are already addressed there.] For this translation, I have revised the addendum, in order to more precisely address some points after David Graeber heavily criticized me for my review. The heated reaction, also from and toward other individuals, was and is disturbing for me and can hardly be attributed to differences concerning matters of substance. It’s also probably not a mere coincidence that only men had their say. Also, a staccato in 140-character tweets and commentary at various places on the Internet (instead of where the text originally appeared) were not very encouraging for a meaningful debate based upon mutual understanding. In the meantime, the debate on Graeber’s debt has advanced. A very intensive discussion is still going on, for example with regard to Mike Beggs’ review in Jacobin magazine and on the blog Crooked Timber. Unfortunately, I was not able to take any new aspects or arguments arising from this discussion into consideration.

Just one more preliminary note, since the battle lines of »Marxist« vs. »Anarchist« were all too quickly drawn. Many points of my critique of the conceptual and theoretical approach of Debt also apply to the historical work of Marxists. In their case, the forces of production or class struggle are the trans-historical constants. For that reason, they are also »ahistorical«, despite their historical self-conception. More on that shortly.

For these reasons, and in the hope for better understanding, I have requested that the addendum also be translated. So I’d like to here say »many thanks«. Continue reading “Addendum on Graeber’s Debt”