David McNally (1) (1953–)

Helpful, if not earthshattering (no pun intended). Well-written essays that make the case: predictions of apocalyptic catastrophe can be a useful tool for galvanizing the right, because they confirm the reactionary worldview, and reify the rightwing desire for authoritarianism. But they are not useful for building movements to transform society in a more humane, democratic, ecological, and equitable way. On the left or in apolitical people “catastrophism” merely tends to generate despair show more and a sense of powerlessness, which results in cynicism, absorption in the trivial, and immobility.

Sadly, the weakest chapter is the one on apocalyptic cultural production. It is narrowly focused on zombies (a fun and fruitful topic however) – but apocalyptic symbols and narratives are a much broader and deeper part of our cultural inheritance, and they resonate far more on a mythic level of understanding than on an historical or political one. Left rationalism would like to see myth defanged by reducing it to history (the chapter’s author quotes Walter Benjamin to that effect) but mythic consciousness is irreducible to historical consciousness because the conception of time is fundamentally different. The left idea that class-conscious rationalism alone is sufficient to nullify deep-seated supra-rational (joyful, transcendental, as well as terrible) elements of human experience is a weakness of much theory, and needs to be reconsidered. show less

so basically vampires are capitalists, the undead are workers, stripped of their individuality etc by capitalism and becoming pure labour power. stories of monsters and magic help defetishise capitalism by exposing the unnaturalness of it. talk of monsters has been used by the working class to show how unnatural it is and by the ruling class to mark off workers. stuff about dismemberment and anatomy dissections as ruling class punishment on the poor and also symbolic of what workers became show more (ie capital can control the worker, hands become alienated from worker and are controlled by capital/machinery). there's a lot to it it's interesting. like the idea of the monstrous common person in the 17thish century as something "without bounds", the horror of the commons as a concept as opposed to good capitalist enclosures represented in the fear of the monstrous boundless mob. the analysis of okri's writing at the end is very good. you could maybe write a critique of orientalism type stuff in this - he talks a lot about "africa" in general although he's v good with specifics about the places and circumstances the occult ideas he's talking about come from.

the book acts also as a kind of whirlwind tour of 3 periods of capitalism - "primitive accumulation" in europe, development of industrial capitalism, neocolonialism in africa (probably most notably original colonialism is missing from this - seems the monstrous being connected with race would be a meaningful study but i dunno). i liked the history stuff a lot it was good even when the symbolic analysis was a bit tenuous (eg the connection between paintings of corpse anatomy and ruling class understandings of their own power seemed v benefit of hindsight)

the history stuff is good to read but the cultural analysis type stuff can be really tough to get through because of the language. sometimes i had trouble making it through because the actual descriptions of the horrors of capitalism felt too raw while the development of the themes of monsters sometimes felt too remote from the realities of capitalism. which is unfair on the latter because he closely ties the symbolism to the horrors but the language used can be bleh. it's a good book and if the subject sounds interesting then i recommend it

there's a LOT of analysis and interesting stuff to pore over in this book but i'm not in a good place to summarise but if the concept's interesting and you're prepared to tackle some tough language sometimes then it's good show less

I picked up this book as a counterpart to the documentary Inside Job and other depictions of the recent financial crisis and I'm glad I did.
This is a book written for political economists and as well as for the lay leader, so there are parts that are difficult to wade through, but the arguments are compelling and the connections well drawn between the history of modern capitalism and the state we now find ourselves in.

Chapter five, "Debt, Discipline, and Dispossession: Race, Class and the show more Global Slump" should be required reading for any social progressive. McNally reveals the ways in which morally repugnant institutions (over-incarceration of people of colour, high unemployment rates, ongoing colonialism, etc) uphold Capitalism as we know it.

The final chapter, in which McNally describes his vision for a great resistance movement, was in my opinion the weakest in the book. Unfortunately, despite his brilliant deconstruction of what the problem is, McNally has little to offer in terms of new solutions. Although his suggestions are not bad, they are all fairly standard aspects of Marxist thought, and seem inadequate to address the challenges he has laid out. This doesn't stop me from highly recommending the book, but it does lead me to suggest that if you will likely need to supplement this book with something else in order to understand what can be done to get out of this "global slump." show less

McNally is a deep researcher after my own heart. He takes you on a journey through time, from ancient to modern. The rich historical detail is fascinating. He knows the ins and outs of money and all the terrifying implications of a global society ruled by it. Basically Man Money = World Go Kaboom. I liked it best when he didn't let the (admittedly fascinating) facts take over for analysis. There is eloquent and highly relevant analysis to be found here.

Reading it, I had to fill in my own show more ecofeminist/animal liberationist etc. points as he really doesn't go there. show less