Catastrophe or Revolution?

Abstract

This essay critically examines a statement made by former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, before and during a debate with one of the authors. Blanchard argued that a Keynesian “revolution” is needed to avert a future “catastrophe.” But analyzing the historical process this essay names the law of capital’s reproduction and tendency toward centralization leads to a grim prediction: the tendency of free capital to centralize and thereby jeopardize all other freedoms threatens today’s liberal-democratic hegemonic institutions. In the face of this prospect, neither Keynesian policy nor a universal basic income seem adequate. The only revolution able to avert catastrophe is the redefinition of the most powerful tool in the history of political struggles: collective planning, subversively regarded as a factor for developing free social individuality and a newly liberated human being.