Proudhon’s Three Crises V3
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Transcript of Proudhon’s Three Crises V3
The Returning Point:Proudhon’s Three Crises
Jesse Cohn
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Gustave Courbet, Proudhon et ses enfants (1865)
THREE CRISES
1. Aesthetic crisis (1865)
2. Financial crisis (1847-48)
3. Political crisis (1851)
1. Aesthetic crisis (1865)
Gustave Courbet, Le Retour de la Conférence (1863)
[reproduction – original destroyed]
Daguerrotype, 1845
“l’industrie photographique […], faisant irruption dans l’art, en devient la plus mortelle ennemie.”
— Charles Baudelaire, 1859Charles Baudelaire (ca. 1863)
“l’œuvre d’art est déterminée par un ensemble qui est l’état général de l’esprit et des mœurs.”
— Hyppolite Taine, 1864 Hyppolite Taine (1828-1893)
Alphonse Allais, Première communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques par un temps de neige (1883)
Kasimir Malevich, White Square on White (1918)
“Évidemment la peinture était morte. […] L’Art moderne est-il autre chose qu’un jeu de la mémoire?”
— Paul Chenavard, 1853 Paul Chenavard (1808-1895)
Jacques-Louis David, Le Serment des Horaces (1784)
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe (1967)
2. Financial crisis (1847-48)
Capitalism in crisis: 1847-48
• Speculative bubble
• Bank failures
• Run on gold
• One in three dependent on charity
• Unemployment near 17%
Economic crisis – a general model Proudhon: What Is Property? (1840)
• Strong economic activity: low unemployment, labor scarce, wages rise
• Capitalists invest in machinery to increase productivity
• Overproduction sends prices lower
• Demand for labor slackens; unemployment rises, wages fall
• Unemployment and falling wages slacken demand for products
• Investors withdraw capital
. . . etc.
Economic crisis – circulation model Proudhon: Programme révolutionnaire (1848)
“Le travail est suspendu, les ateliers sont fermés, les magasins restent pleins, le débouché n’appelle plus le produit, le capital fuit, le numéraire se cache, le commerce tombe, l’impôt ne rentre plus, l’État approche de la banqueroute, l’ouvrier à jeun se tord dans le désespoir; en un mot, la CIRCULATION est nulle : voilà la crise.”
Economic crisis – circulation model Proudhon: Programme révolutionnaire (1848)
“Ne remontons pas la chaîne sans fin des causes et des effets; considérons le fait en lui-même et disons : La cause du mal, c’est le mal. La cause de la crise, c’est la crise.”
3. Political crisis (1851)
Coup d’état: Dec. 2, 1851
Coup d’état: Dec. 2, 1851
Coup d’état: Dec. 2, 1851
Coup d’état: Dec. 2, 1851
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Modern
Disappearance of art’s goal
(representation of reality)
Circulation blocked; exchange
impossible
Democracy produces autocracy
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Modern
Disappearance of art’s goal
(representation of reality)
Circulation blocked; exchange
impossible
Democracy produces autocracy
Postmodern
Disappearance of art’s goal
(self-purification)
Liquidity absent;
exchange impossible
Elitism appears as populism
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Art deprived of object
Money deprived of function
Democracy deprived of
content
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Art deprived of object
Money deprived of function
Democracy deprived of
content
Loss of meaning Loss of value Loss of power
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Art deprived of object
Money deprived of function
Democracy deprived of
content
Loss of meaning Loss of value Loss of power
Art no longer represents
anything outside itself
Money no longer represents
anything outside itself
Government no longer represents anything outside
itself
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Signifiers decline away from signifieds
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Signifiers decline away from signifieds
Representations become autonomous
General form of the crisis
Aesthetic Financial Political
Signifiers decline away from signifieds
Representations become autonomous
Alienation of powers; loss of human autonomy
Crises
• “La critique de l’art n’est l’extension de la critique de l’Etat et de la religion : dans tous les cas, c’est la puissance de création sociale qui est confisquée à la société, mouvement de confiscation à la faveur duquel se dégage une caste parasitaire qui s’ en attribue le contrôle, et finit par utiliser cette puissance contre la société, c’est-à-dire contre elle-même.”
— Alain Pessin
Crises
• “Comme l’Etat, comme la religion, l’art, révélateur incomparable de la dynamique vitale elle-même, échappe à la vie commune pour se figer en des institutions négatrices de la vie. Il est aisé d’en conclure que la destruction de l’art institué constitue le préalable à la libération de l’art, c’est-à-dire à sa resocialisation, sa revitalisation par la spontanéité collective.”
— Alain Pessin
Proudhon’s response
Aesthetic
Re-situate art within its social context
social art
Proudhon’s response
Proudhon’s response
Proudhon’s response
Financial
Producers circulate use-values directly among themselves
mutualism
Direct exchange
chairs
wine
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs chairsmakes wine
Direct exchange impossible
??
??
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
Indirect exchange – via money
$$ch
airs
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
Indirect exchange – via money
$$
wine
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
Indirect exchange – via money
$$
calico
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
Indirect exchange – via money
$$ $$
$$
calicoch
airs
wine
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
Indirect exchange via money impossible
$$ $$
$$
calicoch
airs
wine
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
Indirect exchange – moneyless
calico
wine
chairs
Paris
makes chairsneeds wine
Bordeaux
needs calicomakes wine
makes caliconeeds chairs
Mulhouse
chairs
calico
wine
Indirect exchange – moneyless
BANQUE DU PEUPLE
Proudhon’s response
Political
Replace the constituted with
constituent power
anarchy
Proudhon’s response
Proudhon’s response
Aesthetic Financial Political
Re-situate art within its social context
Producers circulate use-values directly among themselves
Replace the constituted with
constituent power
social art mutualism anarchy
Proudhon’s response
Aesthetic Financial Political
Return alienated powers
to their source in life
Representing crises: Benjamin with Proudhon
Representing crises: Benjamin with Proudhon
“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule.”
Representing crises: Benjamin with Proudhon
“That things are ‘status quo’ is the catastrophe.”
Representing crises: Benjamin with Proudhon
Representing crises: Benjamin with Proudhon
“Nous ne pouvons vivre dans cette barbarie; il faut nous en relever à tout prix […] Ce sont d’autres moyens à employer, d’autres formes à créer, d’autres agencements à imaginer.”
Representing crises: Benjamin with Proudhon
“There are other means to employ, other forms to create, other arrangements to imagine.”
“That things are ‘status quo’ is the catastrophe.”
“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule.”