Book contents
5 - The Revival of Utopian Socialism and the Productive Forces of Capital
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2023
Summary
Traditionally, Marxists are sympathetic to technological progress. They often proclaim that only the further development of productive forces prepares the material conditions for the post-capitalist mode of production. While the late Herbert Marcuse (1992) came to explicitly emphasize the environmentally destructive aspects of capitalist production, even he was optimistic about the possibility of technological advancement as the major force for human emancipation beyond scarcity and poverty through the famous dialectics of quantity and quality. He suggested that the biological foundation
would have the chance of turning quantitative technical progress into qualitatively different ways of life – precisely because it would be a revolution occurring at a high level of material and intellectual development, one which would enable man to conquer scarcity and poverty. If this idea of a radical transformation is to be more than idle speculation, it must have an objective foundation in the production process of advanced industrial society, in its technical capabilities and their use. For freedom indeed depends largely on technical progress, on the advancement of science. (Marcuse 1969: 19)
Unfortunately, the Promethean dream of realizing freedom through technical progress has not been realised. Or, to put it in terms of the dialectic, the dialectical transformation of quantity to quality happens only in such a way that technical ‘progress’ comes to exert an uncontrollable destructive power over the planet.
Despite its history of failure, Promethean ideas are again coming back to have a great influence within political ecology. In fact, ecomodernist ideas become hegemonic as the ecological crisis deepens. Now the development and application of gigantic technologies and science seems to be the only solution that is fast enough and on a sufficient scale to tackle the serious threat of climate breakdown. The new advocates of Prometheanism argue that environmentalists, by contrast, are too naïve in calling for slowing down and scaling down to live in harmony with nature. Environmental Prometheanism is ‘a lesser evil’ (Symons 2019: 52).
Contemporary Marxism is also responding to this situation. For example, Alberto Toscano (2011) insists upon reviving the ‘Promethean’ ideals of the left in order to envision a post-capitalist world.
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- Marx in the AnthropoceneTowards the Idea of Degrowth Communism, pp. 136 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023