A Critical-Realist Theory of America
Tim Murphy
Continuation of the Spoon Bhaskar List
Subject: [Critical-Realism] A Critical-Realist Theory of America
The following introduction is to an essay being prepared
for the upcoming IACR Annual Conference in Philadelphia
this August. Is this a suitable venue for its discussion?
Fred Zaman
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A Critical-Realist Theory of America:
Capitalism's Conspiratorial Unconscious
ABSTRACT. The United States increasingly is seen as heading
down the wrong path, both by those abroad and its own
citizens-left and right, liberal and conservative. This
article provides a theoretical framework in Roy Bhaskar's
critical realism for understanding how the nation has
reached this point in history, and what the future may
hold. The essay endeavors to provide a frank and honest
perspective of the less admirable characteristics of
American society-a political tough love that presents an
unvarnished explanation that does not sugar coat either
America's past or present. The essay's framework is
Marxist, but does not propose capitalism's overthrow. It
nevertheless is strongly anti-capitalist in that the theory
presented, which is of a capitalist conspiratorial
unconscious, brings capitalism's noir or dark side clearly
into the light of day. It is-it is argued-the beginning of
a rationally-formulated, non-ideological, non-
establishmentarian, non-sectarian sociology of free-market
capitalism for creating political forces that, in the
twenty-first century, hopefully can remake America's
economic system into a more humane institution.
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".I see in the near future a crisis approaching that
unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my
country. As a result of the war, corporations have been
enthroned and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will
endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the
prejudices of the people until all wealth
is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is
destroyed."[1]--U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov 21,
1864 (letter to Col. W. F. Elkins)
The hidden reality of a radical, unconscious capitalist
conspiracy in America that is argued to exist is here
explained naturalistically through a philosophical realism
here called radical critical realism. In this critical
realism a transcendental, second-order reasoning answers
the question what must the world be like so that science is
possible, whose answer is: science is possible because the
world is such that human beings are able to employ the laws
of nature (physical, chemical, biological, etc.) as
instruments of control in science and technology, and in
life's everyday activities as well. What results from this
is a more analytically developed "dialectical critical
realism" whose core or deep structure is Machiavellian in
principle. The positive in American history here, using a
Bhaskarian metaphor, is "a tiny but very important ripple
on a sea of negativity."
The second-order mechanism of this largely invisible
societal core is a radicalization of the political
unconscious of Frederic Jameson, whose forces of class
struggle have determined American history over the long
term from 1650 to the present. The source of capitalism's
(the power elite's) conspiracy in American history is a
radical political unconscious containing the secret
meanings of our collective acts-those meanings we did not
consciously intend but whose collective, second-order
effects nevertheless are unconsciously Machiavellian.
America's radical unconscious is the causal mechanism
through which surface relations between individuals
seemingly have the "cunning" ability to induce actions
whose unintended results promote the capitalist agenda at
the expense of the under classes. America's radical
unconscious possesses great social inertia, whose momentum
thus is radically altered (reversed ideologically) by the
common people (the under classes) only very slowly and over
the long term-some 200 years or Mao's "seven generations."
The philosopher in Roy Bhaskar's critical realism [2,3] is
one who observes what scientists are doing; and from this
concludes, obviously, that the world is such that the
methods employed by scientists tell us things about the
world that are very important to know. In critical realism
the philosopher starts with the success of the practices of
modern science and explores what these practices tell us
about the world [4]. Reasoning of this kind, concerning
what the world must be like in order that science is even
possible, which has been called second-order or
transcendental reasoning, is the domain of the philosopher.
The philosopher's objective here is to aid the scientist,
by serving as an "underlaborer" that assists those who are
scientists by investigating the pre-conditions that make
the successes of science possible.
Several results of the philosopher's transcendental
reasoning in critical realism will be central to the
present essay [5]. One, certainly, is that the world is
such that scientists are able to employ, as de facto
instruments of control in their research and in the conduct
of their daily lives, laws of nature that for all intents
and purposes are objective and exist independent of the
scientist's rational knowledge of such. Another result of
this kind of reasoning is that the ability of humans to
make a difference, as they employ nature's laws as de facto
instruments of control in their actions, is not self-
deception but real. And yet a third result of
transcendental reasoning in the philosophy of critical
realism is knowledge that nature's laws, which constitute
its causal powers, determine the ability of things to act;
of which humans are not the only beings to act thusly,
through the causal powers provided by laws of nature
employed as instruments of control.
Finally, a fourth result of critical realism, in the social
sciences, is that second-order arguments are needed for an
objective understanding of society [6,7,8]. The individual
and society, both existing independently, are related like
two animals in symbiosis [9]. Individuals as members of
society are in essence the organs of the much larger social
body, which as a whole is a much more primitive "social
animal" that can act but does not possess consciousness.
The question that thus arises in the sociology of critical
realism is: how does the more primitive animal that society
de facto constitutes employ nature's laws as instruments of
control, unconsciously. Individuals presently have little
control over the society in which they live. Perhaps this
would change if there was a better understanding of just
how society as a whole, in essence functioning as a
primitive social animal that unconsciously employs nature's
laws as instruments of control.
The present essay is directed toward the development of
just such an understanding. The prototype or exemplar for
this work will be American society, as it has developed in
history circa 1650 to the present: economically,
politically, and socially. American society, as the
exemplar in this application of critical realism [10], is
analyzed in the terms of the "dialectical critical realism"
[11] of a primitive social animal named Nostromo-here the
economic, political, and cultural dynamic of capital's
conspiratorial "radical unconscious." Nostromo's radical
unconscious, in Jungian terms, rather than arising out of
intellectual curiosity or personal flight from unpleasant
reality, instead arises out of people's deepest and truest
needs. Nostromo's radical unconscious is what arises within
society collectively as it becomes more deeply engrossed in
universal problems [12]. And thus it is such fundamental
needs, unconsciously felt to be the deepest and truest,
that drive society's radical unconscious.
Nostromo is fundamentally Marxist, Althusserian,
Jamesonian, and Machiavellian. It is Marxist in that the
basic precept of Marxism-class struggle-is key in the
account of American society given. It is Althusserian in
that class struggle in America is driven by the
"underground currents of the materialism of the encounter"
that are ideological in character, rather than economic. It
is Jamesonian in that the "underground currents" of
American ideology are of a class-based political
unconscious. And it is Machiavellian in that America's
class-based unconscious, that of a primitive social animal
which itself is devoid of both consciousness and
conscience, is Machiavellian and employs whatever means are
necessary for realizing the desired result-which for
American capitalism is the continued accumulation of
capital at whatever social cost to humanity, and to the
environment. American capitalism in this view, taking the
American bald eagle as its symbol, is a bird of prey that-
if not defended against worldwide-may ultimately consume
both humankind and the environment.
The radical unconscious of this capitalist bird of prey is
to be developed theoretically within the framework of laws
of nature that, in this essay's transcendental, second-
order reasoning, are the instruments through which American
capital has accumulated historically circa 1650 to the
present, and predictably will be forward into the future as
well. Nature's laws in the first-order reasoning of the
natural sciences are treated as operating wholly
independent of human agency; but in the second-order
reasoning of the social and biological sciences here
formulated-as the fundamental theorem of critical realism-
nature's laws are the instruments of sentient beings
purposefully engaged. Laws that limit action in first-order
reasoning thus also become identically the means of action
in second-order reasoning. In this theorem, the second-
order reasoning of the social sciences is in harmony with
the first-order reasoning of natural science ontologically,
but it is more general in that sentience is then included
as a category of the real in sciences both natural and
social.
In Bhaskar's "dialectical critical realism," the category
of the real consists as much of what is "absent" as it does
of what is "present." This is true of America's radical
unconscious as well. One of the most pronounced absences in
the nation's political consciousness, as determined by its
capitalist radical unconscious, is acknowledgement of-or at
least the allowed consideration of-the possibility of
capitalist-based conspiracies. Such claims are ignored by
the nation's consciousness, or immediately and emphatically
denied, and if possible squelched without further
discussion. Absences in the nation's consciousness about
capitalist conspiracies indeed are a category of the real
in America's radical unconscious. On the other hand, claims
regarding the possibility of anti capitalist conspiracies,
labeled "Marxist," "communist," etc.., are allowed in
principle.
In the primitive social animal Nostromo, conspiracies in
general are grounded, in varying degrees, in both the
unconscious and conscious. Nostromo, in the framework of
dialectical critical realism, includes a core in the
radical unconscious-a hidden skeleton that holds everything
in place in the collective but which practical agents do
not address directly, and surface relations in the
consciousness of which practical agents are generally more
directly aware [13]. A conspiracy therefore, in order to
actually be a conspiracy in Nostromo, does not have to be
entered into consciousness as such, through an awareness of
the surface relations of practical agents. Society's
radical unconscious therefore is the mother of all
conspiracies that arise, because it gives birth to those
consciously manifested in the surface relations of
practical agents, whose participants then become aware of
what they are doing. America's economic "greenback
conspiracy" below is this essay's exemplar of capitalism's
radical unconscious, which in Nostromo has been the seedbed
of all conspiracies in American society.
[1] http://www.ratical.org/corporations/Lincoln.html
[2] Roy Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, second ed.
(New York and London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1978).
[3] Margaret S. Archer, Tony Lawson, Andrew Collier, eds.
Critical Realism: Essential Readings (London: Taylor &
Francis,1998).
[4] Roy Bhaskar, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation.
Verso. 1986.
[5] Hans G. Ehrbar, Marxism and Critical Realism (Seminar
Presentation at University of Utah, 1998)
http://www.econ.utah.edu/~ehrbar/index.htm
[6] Roy Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism: A
Philosophical Critique of Contemporary Human Sciences,
second ed. (New York and London: Harvester Wheatsheaf,
1989).
[7] Roy Bhaskar, Andred Collier (ed.) Possibility of
Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary
Human Sciences (London: Taylor & Francis, 1999).
[8] Andrew Sayer, Realism and Social Science ($ :Sage,
2000).
[9] Margaret S. Archer. Realist Social Theory: The
Morphogenetic Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995).
[10] Andrew Sayer, Method in Social Science: Realist
Approach (London: Taylor & Francis, 1992).
[11] Roy Bhaskar, Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom (London,
New York: Verso, 1993).
[12] C.G. Jung, Selected and Introduced by Violet S. de
Laszlo, Translated by R.F.C. Hull, The Basic Writings of
C.G. Jung (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990),
156-157.
[13] Hans G. Ehrbar, "Critical Realist Arguments in Marx's
Capital," In Marxism and Critical Realism, A. brown,
S.Fleetwood, and J.M. Roberts eds. (London: Routledge,
2001).
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In the above article class struggle is grounded in the
subterranean cultural logic of a Jamesonian "political
unconscious" that historically has been America's Marxist
motor of economic, political, and social development. The
figures and tables described below, which encapsulate
theory development in different yet complementary ways, all
depict the cultural logic of an ideologically-grounded,
radical unconscious as it has evolved historically from
1650 the present, and predictably will continue to do in
the future as well:
Figure 1. America's "dominant cultural logic":
A planetary diagram with America's "proletariat" at the
center historically illuminating American society in four
different seasons of cultural dominance: the Spring of
Faith of conservative colonial America (1650-1750); the
Summer of Solidarity of communitarian antebellum America
(1750-1850); the Autumn of Skepticism of liberalist
modernist America (1850-1950); and the Winter of Alienation
of libertarian postmodern America (1950-2050). America's
proletariat is here the source of society's centrist
attractive force (egalitarian gravitas); the haute
bourgeoisie is society's progressive inertial force
(private sector momentum); and the "basse bourgeoisie" is
society's structural force (public sector relations)
defined in the terms of its position in the orbit of Figure
1. Each of these classes possesses a political unconscious
that is characteristic of each season, while at the same
time constantly changing in the manner indicated.
Figure 2. America's "underground currents of the
unconscious":
A wave diagram showing the cyclic underground currents of
the four ideologies shown in Figure 1: Center-Right
conservatism, Far-Right communitarianism, Center-Left
liberalism, and Far-Left libertarianism. Of the four
currents shown, two are in phase opposition and two are in
phase quadrature. The current positive peaks depict public
sector (basse bourgeoisie) hegemony, while the current
negative peaks depict communal sector (proletariat)
hegemony. The current midlines on ascending waves then
represent private sector (haute bourgeoisie) hegemony,
while the current midlines on descending waves represent
the political impotence of the ideology previously
hegemonic in the public sector. At the present time (circa
2000), for example, the Center-Left liberalism that was
hegemonic in the public sector circa 1900 is today
politically impotent.
Table 1. America's Machiavellian virtu:
A table of the three classes/sectors showing the ideology
of each in each of the four seasons in Figure 1. The table
is Hegelianized in terms of society's ongoing quest for
freedom during each season of Figure 1, through a master-
slave dialectic (ideological thesis, antithesis, synthesis)
in which dual elitist and publican "masters" (haute and
basse bourgeoisie) jointly rule over a lowly populist slave
(proletariat). The ideologies of master and slave reverse
in the manner of the Hegelian master-slave dialectic over a
period of two hundred years, to then later obtain a
synthesis thereof over the next two hundred years for a
completed Hegelian triad of "thesis, antithesis, synthesis"
over some four hundred years. America, according to this
historiography is now moving toward the completion (circa
2100) of a four hundred year Hegelian cycle of Center-Right
conservativism v. Center-Left liberalism. Also, according
to the timetable of Figure 1, another four hundred year
Hegelian cycle of Far-Right communitarianism v. Far-Left
libertarianism (not shown in its entirely in Figure 1) is
predicted to be completed circa 2200.
Table 2. America's Machiavellian ordini:
A two dimensional table with America's three classes of the
political unconscious listed along the horizontal. Along
the vertical are six parameters or elements of each class,
including its: domain of authority (sector of society),
class Althusserian ordini (Machiavellian problematics),
class dialectic, as seen from within the class, class
reflexivity (character of the class dialectic as viewed
from the outside), the Newtonian homologue of the class
Althusserian virtu (Machiavellian practices), and the
Newtonian homologue of the class ideological source. The
essay integrates these different aspects of America's
class-based political unconscious into the unified cultural
logic of the United States diagrammed in Figure 1.
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