Newmedia on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:24:02 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Vice, Freedom and Capitalist Market Expansion |
Folks: This is a post I made on the "_Points: The Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society_ (http://pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com/) " blog -- Hello: Vice "regulation" is, of course, an *economic* topic which is at the heart of capitalism -- as it has been at least since early 18th century and the publishing (at first anonymously) of Bernard de Mandeville's "Fable of the Bees: Private Vice and Publick Benefit." The consumption of vice is, after all, the basis of the FREE MARKET. Here, you could refer to the defense of the British Opium Wars in front of Parliament by Riccardo as *required* by the free market -- using Adam Smith as his "authority." The vigorous defense of the "Fable" by free-marketeer F. von Hayek and the publishing of the two-volume "ur-text" of the "Fable" by Liberty Books firmly makes that connection -- as does, perhaps, the copious funding support for drug legalization by free-marketeer George Soros. Capitalism really makes no sense without vice and, indeed, those who have been responsible for expanding its range have consistently argued for more vice. Vice makes the market work. And, arguably, those attempts to curtail the expansion of vice, like the "prohibition" of alcohol occurred at just those moments when new technologies were expanding the market further -- as radio/newspapers/movies were opening the era of mass-media advertising in the early 20th century. My question is a simple one. If the world (or even parts of it) have become or, as many wish, will become *post-capitalist* and, therefore, *post-market* economies, does that mean that the expansion of VICE=MARKET will move in the other direction? Mark Stahlman Brooklyn NY This was in response to a post on "Regulating Vice," by Jim Leitzel, who teaches a course with that title at University of Chicago and recently gave a TEDxChicago talk on the topic. _http://pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/teaching-points-jim-leitzel- comments-on-regulation-of-vice/#comment-3228_ (http://pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/teaching-points-jim-leitzel-comments-on-regulation-of-vice /#comment-3228) _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Px4nYbJoQ_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Px4nYbJoQ) More broadly, the whole topic of *freedom*, including freedom of speech, assembly and the whole range of freedoms associated with "democracy," need to be discussed in relationship to capitalist market expansion. And, does our understanding of "human rights" make any sense outside of the need to expand these capitalist markets? If one is "opposed" to capitalism and the market economy, then were do you stand on vice? Mark Stahlman # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org