Book Review: The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

 The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism by Daniel Bell

The beginning of the book echoed some of my thoughts about the inadequacy of economics. The founders of economics, like Adam Smith, held the production of wealth to be an end in itself, rather than a means to lead a civilized life.

The book begins by noting that the three realms of a society, namely, the economy, the polity, and the culture, are ruled by principles that may not be acting in unison. For the economy, efficiency; for the polity, equality; and

for the culture, self-realization (or self-gratification) could be the primary driving force. There always can be a mismatch, making social conflicts, a permanent feature of our society. 

Accordingly, as the book puts it, shifts in economic and political power happen, more due to changes in the power of national states, than due to variation in social systems like communism or capitalism. After such an introduction, part 1 of the book starts examining the cultural contradictions of capitalism. How, culture, for a society, a group, or a person, is a continual process of sustaining an identity, and happens to be the primary player of concern, anywhere. How it's sway into the modern times leads to a dichotomy. 'Modernism must always struggle but never quite triumph, and then, after a time, must struggle in order not to triumph'. (No wonder, there is always an urge to belittle the new, while extolling the virtues of everything old, and the huge power, culture wields, should be seen in this light)

Just as in the economy, where growth changes discretionary income, in the cultural arena,  expansion of knowledge widens the permissive nature of social atmosphere, popularizing discretionary elements in behavior. 

In Part II, Dilemma of Polity, the book goes on to examine the political contradictions derive from the fact that the original liberal society has now become an interdependent economy that must stipulate collective goals. Where, each new generation need to start afresh, discard the past, and redesign institutions anew. And there will be success, the book concludes, if the power of knowledge coexist with the knowledge of its limits. 

I liked this interesting take on the flow of changes that continue to change the flow of our imagination.