Political Science Communism & Socialism
Contradictions of Capitalist Society and Culture
Dialectics of Love and Lying
- Publisher
- Haymarket Books
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2024
- Category
- Communism & Socialism, Activism & Social Justice, Cultural
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9798888902370
- Publish Date
- Jun 2024
- List Price
- $38.95
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
In this sociological examination of love, truth, and hate, Raju J. Das argues that if we are to defeat the hate-politics and post-truth politics, then we must fight for a post-capitalist world that is truthful and caring.
Love and truth are important aspects of culture. Signifying the crisis of capitalist culture in the contemporary world are their opposites, i.e. hate and lying, respectively. There is rampant lying for ideological/political purposes. There is also an increasing absence of genuine love, i.e., love as caring and solidarity, which, under certain conditions, takes romantic forms.
Ideological-political lying is connected to the corruption of love, with its confinement to the private sphere of individuals and consequent isolation from the wider unequal society. This connection is via capitalism. On the one hand, capitalism resorts to ideological-political lying to cover up its contradictions that cause alienation/suffering of the masses. Lying and alienation/suffering are not conducive to genuine love in society. On the other hand, a crisis-ridden capitalism produces the right-wing politics of lying ('post-truth' politics). This is also a politics of hatred (or, 'post-love, or, anti-love') against minorities, democrats and socialists, a politics that is justified by lies about these subjects.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Raju J Das is Professor at York University, Toronto. His research interests include Marxist political economy and social theory. His recent books are Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World, and Marx’s Capital, Capitalism, and Limits to the State.
Other titles by
The Challenges of the New Social Democracy
Social Capital and Civic Association or Class Struggle?
Global Poverty
Rethinking Causality
Critical Reflections on Economy and Politics in India. Volume 1
A Class Theory Perspective
Critical Reflections on Economy and Politics in India. Volume 2
A Class Theory Perspective