Albert J Bergesen - thanks for your interesting post about the
hegmeony of capitalistic autobiography.
Here's one possible reaction:
It does seem that positing an Afroeurasian system as the parent to
the present capitalism of the 'outer peninsula' is replacing one
hegemony with another, though. Part of the difficulties of a
colonialist, and especially colonialist-capitalist, discourse is
that analysis loses its effectivity by aspiring to ever greater
meta levels. In this case, the 'parent' of capitalism.
The very thing of which you accuse capitalism (losing sight of its
roots, subsuming difference under a monolithic symbol, writing that
symbol as the guiding totem of its history), is however perhpas
equally effectively acheived in your rebuttal. By bringing all
of antecedant economic systems under the one name, the analysis
risks making just another grand theme of homogenised market activity.
It will lead to the same conclusions as those which explicitly
centre themselves within the capitalist framework.
What do you all think?
respect
Justine Lera
Philosophy
University of New South Wales
Australia
justine@cia.com.au