The radicals have the easier case to make. They have only to point to the discrepancies between the operation of the modern economy and the ideas by which it is supposed to be judged, while the conservatives have the well nigh impossible task of demonstrating that this is the best of all possible worlds. For the same reason, however, the conservatives are compensated by occupying positions of power, which they can use to keep criticism in check . . . The conservatives do not feel obliged to answer radical criticisms on their merits and the argument is never fairly joined.8
But even most of the "radicals" usually start by taking the existing system for granted. The arguments of the radical Keynesians like Joan Robinson have always been in terms of amendments to the system, through greater state intervention than that envisaged by the mainstream. They have not seen the system itself as driven by an inner dynamic whose destructive efects are not restricted to purely economic phenomena. In the 21st century it is producing wars, hunger and climate change as well as economic crises, and doing so in ways which threatens the very basis of human life.
Capitalism transforms society in its entirety as its sucks people by the billions into labouring for it. It changes the whole pattern by which humanity lives, remoulding human nature itself. It gives a new character to old oppressions and throws up completely new ones. It creates drives to war and ecological destruction. It seems to act like a force of nature, creating chaos and devastation on a scale much greater than any earthquake, hurricane or tsunami. Yet the system is not a product of nature, but of human activity, human activity that has somehow escaped from human control and taken on a life of its own. Economists write that "the market does this" or "the market demands that". But the market is only the coming together of the products of many disparate acts of human creative activity, labour. What the economists' talk disguises is that somehow these have turned into a machine that dominates the humans that undertake such activity, hurling the world in a direction that few people in their right mind would want. Faced with the financial crisis that began in 2007, some economic commentators did begin to talk of "zombie banks"- financial institutions that were in the "undead state" and incapable of fulfilling any positive function, but representing a threat to everything else.� What they do not recognise is that 2 1 st century capitalism as a whole is a zombie system, seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals and responding to human feelings, but capable of sudden spurts of activity that cause chaos all around.
Introduction
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