Article,
Cultural Contradictions of Global Capitalism
Journal of Economic Issues, 38 (2): 413--420 (June 2004)
Abstract
This article focuses on cultural contradictions of global capitalism. In the book The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, by Daniel Bell, he found that the decline of the bourgeois value system was brought about largely by the bourgeois economic system itself. In his opinion, the traditional values of U.S. capitalism associated with the puritan temper and the protestant ethic were, from perhaps the 1960s onward, in conflict with the rising postmodern temper of the avant-garde and the different. Bell believed that the economic system promoted avant-garde cultural values into the mainstream of the realm of cultural industries and that such was in conflict with the spirit of work, trust, and stability. The capitalist economic system, therefore, necessarily propelled a cultural fabric that was against capitalism, and this was said to lead to many problems of system reproducibility. Advances in hedonism, being all that one can, a consumption ethic, sexual liberty, and status emulation were in contradiction with the old values of frugality, industry, justice, modesty, and humility would lead to many problems for capitalism. As a consequence, capitalism is said to have no coherent moral or philosophical doctrine to spur the system into motion as a positive motivational and inspirational force.
