Nancy Fraser (1) (1947–)

Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the LORD [...] He shall then slaughter the people’s goat of sin offering, [...] [He] shall [then] lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness.
—Leviticus 16:7-21

On "Levitical Socialism":

When did the major theoretical work of Marxist intellectuals become the coining of new pejoratives? ("We only have the followers we deserve," true, but I won't hold this against Marx.) We have progressed from "Late Capitalism" to "End Stage Capitalism" to "Neoliberalism" to, now, "Cannibal Capitalism." (Good for Capitalism that it has recovered from end-stage disease and now appears to be taking food.) This last one won't stick either. As the music of Cannibal Corpse has demonstrated, making something wicked also confers a certain cachet.

Whenever "Capitalism" is hypostatized, we must be mindful of dangerous "Hypostatic Electricity" which threatens to short-circuit our forward charge (political movement) into the Ground. At any point in the space of Fraser's investigation where we encounter friction, we are tempted to zap it away using the Ground of "Abolish Capitalism." Therefore, we should not be surprised when Fraser's multipolar intersectional analysis is threatened by a monopolar short-circuit. When the task of using antiracism to end Capitalism begins to encounter friction (we must court the "white working class" after all), we are satisfied merely to end Capitalism, which has the side benefit of ending racism (we'll get around to it later), a short-circuit which functions to defer the task indefinitely. After all, Capitalism has not been so easy to Abolish as we had once believed. (Aren't we already living in the age of "Zombie Capitalism?") With this in mind, the gregarious work of enumerating the members of our coalition is already the counting of the cost of contingents we are preparing to sacrifice (but which, by virtue of the absurd, we will recover in Revolution (Eternity)).

In a world in which everyone is Exploited and Expropriated, where is the guilty party to be found? Fraser's text almost makes us forget we once heard, "Wrong life cannot be lived rightly," and that, "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism." When these phrases had not yet lost their salt, they recalled that every Exploited-Expropriated person is responsible, more or less, for the Exploitation-Expropriation of another. This Differance between "more" and "less" is precisely the space of action of a tenuous Resistance which must be won in each moment. To pave over the fact that everyone possesses, to varying degrees, "Guilt of Socialist Impiety," is to have these lapses and spaces continue to undermine collective action (is it possible to recall a Leftist movement which has not been destroyed by infighting?), whereas these faults and inadequacies could have been put to use as a tactical and strategic resource. These phrases, of course, have since been dis-armed, and now give permission for those with bad conscience to behave badly. Meanwhile we have "sent off our sins into the wilderness" where they now dwell with the Truly Responsible (The 1% AKA The Billionaire Class AKA The Megacorporations AKA The He-Goat), and the current "Socialist" task is to capture and destroy them. (This reaches a ridiculous apogee in certain sections of left-wing Climate Discourse, 'did you know that 10 corporations produce 90% of all emissions!?')

So rather than "Cannibal Capitalism" it appears this text is really about "Levitical Socialism," which performs the double-movement in the quotation from Leviticus above. Among those who use the phrase "scapegoat," few recall his brother who is to be sacrificed. Levitical Socialism wishes to draw, again, upon the power of this ritual. It is prepared to make the sacrifice, and, perceiving that the sacrifice is insufficient, wishes to repeat it with a doubling gesture - a piety and a purification. But both of these movements are made with the facility which no longer even believes in the Pentateuch, and should be viewed in the agnostic light of the 21st century. There is no piety to be gained in the sacrifice, rather it condemns itself, and sins do not leave the body when they are sent with the goat off into the wilderness, rather they conceal themselves deeper. A tremor passes through her body when the knife is drawn to exsanguinate the goat, and she realizes she is no longer safe in the movement. A sigh passes his lips who witnesses his sins led into the wilderness and feels finally free from the duty of self-inquiry. Some books have the power to make you more stupid. Following the ritual of the goat we are almost ready to join the cadre of meat-eating far-thinking Socialists who do not even vote.… (more)

Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the LORD [...] He shall then slaughter the people’s goat of sin offering, [...] [He] shall [then] lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness.
—Leviticus 16:7-21

On "Levitical Socialism":

When did the major theoretical work of Marxist intellectuals become the coining of new pejoratives? ("We only have the followers we deserve," true, but I won't hold this against Marx.) We have progressed from "Late Capitalism" to "End Stage Capitalism" to "Neoliberalism" to, now, "Cannibal Capitalism." (Good for Capitalism that it has recovered from end-stage disease and now appears to be taking food.) This last one won't stick either. As the music of Cannibal Corpse has demonstrated, making something wicked also confers a certain cachet.

Whenever "Capitalism" is hypostatized, we must be mindful of dangerous "Hypostatic Electricity" which threatens to short-circuit our forward charge (political movement) into the Ground. At any point in the space of Fraser's investigation where we encounter friction, we are tempted to zap it away using the Ground of "Abolish Capitalism." Therefore, we should not be surprised when Fraser's multipolar intersectional analysis is threatened by a monopolar short-circuit. When the task of using antiracism to end Capitalism begins to encounter friction (we must court the "white working class" after all), we are satisfied merely to end Capitalism, which has the side benefit of ending racism (we'll get around to it later), a short-circuit which functions to defer the task indefinitely. After all, Capitalism has not been so easy to Abolish as we had once believed. (Aren't we already living in the age of "Zombie Capitalism?") With this in mind, the gregarious work of enumerating the members of our coalition is already the counting of the cost of contingents we are preparing to sacrifice (but which, by virtue of the absurd, we will recover in Revolution (Eternity)).

In a world in which everyone is Exploited and Expropriated, where is the guilty party to be found? Fraser's text almost makes us forget we once heard, "Wrong life cannot be lived rightly," and that, "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism." When these phrases had not yet lost their salt, they recalled that every Exploited-Expropriated person is responsible, more or less, for the Exploitation-Expropriation of another. This Differance between "more" and "less" is precisely the space of action of a tenuous Resistance which must be won in each moment. To pave over the fact that everyone possesses, to varying degrees, "Guilt of Socialist Impiety," is to have these lapses and spaces continue to undermine collective action (is it possible to recall a Leftist movement which has not been destroyed by infighting?), whereas these faults and inadequacies could have been put to use as a tactical and strategic resource. These phrases, of course, have since been dis-armed, and now give permission for those with bad conscience to behave badly. Meanwhile we have "sent off our sins into the wilderness" where they now dwell with the Truly Responsible (The 1% AKA The Billionaire Class AKA The Megacorporations AKA The He-Goat), and the current "Socialist" task is to capture and destroy them. (This reaches a ridiculous apogee in certain sections of left-wing Climate Discourse, 'did you know that 10 corporations produce 90% of all emissions!?')

So rather than "Cannibal Capitalism" it appears this text is really about "Levitical Socialism," which performs the double-movement in the quotation from Leviticus above. Among those who use the phrase "scapegoat," few recall his brother who is to be sacrificed. Levitical Socialism wishes to draw, again, upon the power of this ritual. It is prepared to make the sacrifice, and, perceiving that the sacrifice is insufficient, wishes to repeat it with a doubling gesture - a piety and a purification. But both of these movements are made with the facility which no longer even believes in the Pentateuch, and should be viewed in the agnostic light of the 21st century. There is no piety to be gained in the sacrifice, rather it condemns itself, and sins do not leave the body when they are sent with the goat off into the wilderness, rather they conceal themselves deeper. A tremor passes through her body when the knife is drawn to exsanguinate the goat, and she realizes she is no longer safe in the movement. A sigh passes his lips who witnesses his sins led into the wilderness and feels finally free from the duty of self-inquiry. Some books have the power to make you more stupid. Following the ritual of the goat we are almost ready to join the cadre of meat-eating far-thinking Socialists who do not even vote.… (more)

Run, don't walk, to your nearest book seller or library and get a copy of this slim, salient study of the specific evils of capitalism and the actionable ways that anticapitalist feminism proposes to redress them.

Arrruzza, et al, quickly sketch the bankruptcy of liberal feminism that "confuses feminism with the assent of individual women," and "steadfastly refuses to address the socioeconomic constraints that make freedom and empowerment impossible for the majority of women."

The writers also address issues of reproduction of labor, gender violence, and the environment.

This is one to own, underline, re-read and discuss with your book group.… (more)