A brief review of an article: “Millennial Capitalism and the

Culture of Neoliberalism” by Jean Comaroff and John L.

Comaroff
(By: Bruk Mesfin. Submitted to: Dr. Mellese Mada)
The authors begin the article by classifying the consequences of capitalism's global triumph in this modern age.
They claim that while some of the consequences, such as whether liberalization undermines nation-state
sovereignty, are the subject of intense debate, others have received less attention. They go on listing other
global consequences of capitalism that has got less attention. Some of them are: rationalization and legalization
of the spread of practices such as money magic, pyramid schemes, and prosperity gospels. He, then, tells us to
discuss the pragmatic qualities of the contemporary neoliberal economic which promises to transform the whole
world for good if applied in a proper manner. Let's take a quick look at the basic themes and implications of this
article. The article has three parts. The first one is: “Specters, Speculation: Of Cons and Pros.”

Specters, Speculation: Of Cons and Pros

Consumerism is the idea that increasing the consumption of goods and services purchased in the market is
always a desirable goal, and that a person's well-being and happiness depend fundamentally on obtaining
consumer goods and material possessions. This consumerism is the invisible hand that drives and defines the
liberal world. If consumption increases, production and profit of capitalists’ also increase. This created the
impression that capitalism is good for the wealth and health of states. The workplace and labor rooted in local
context where labor is cheaper, more feminized and less protected by states and labors are replaced by
machines. This, in turn, deprived even more people from possession of property and alienated many in a global
level. Production appears to have been superseded by less tangible ways of generating value: by control over
such things as the provision of services, the means of communication, and above all, the flow of finance capital.

Symptom in this respect is the changing historical fortunes of gambling. Gambling was morally wrong in a
Christian culture. It has generally been placed outside the domain of work and earning in various cultures.
However, over a generation, gambling has changed moral valence and invaded everyday life across the world.
High-risk dealings in stocks, bonds, and funds whose fortunes are governed largely by chance are gambling.
Insurance industries are also gambling industry. Money magic, pyramid schemes, and prosperity gospels are
also symptoms that people are desperately attempting to win capitalism by its own way.

The explosion of popular gambling, legal consolidation of it at the heart of the country's budget, the spread of
highly speculative market investment and the shift in moral values tells us that the world has become a big
casino. The growth of globalized markets, electronic media, and finance capital have opened up the potential for
venture or gambling enterprise.

Crisis after crisis in the global economy, and growing income inequality on a planetary scale make it clear that
that the neoliberal stress on consumption as the prime source of value is palpably problematic. The 2nd part of
the article is: “Labor’s Pain: Producing the Class of 2000”
 Labor’s Pain: Producing the Class of 2000

The emergence of consumption as a motor for production is closely related to the changing status of working
conditions in the modern world. Some claims now a day production does not look to labor as its dynamic
foundation. But others argue that there are a larger absolute number of industrial workers in the world today
than ever before. Global investors appear less and less constrained by the costs or moral economy of concrete
labor. Features of capitalism changed through years.

Today’s capitalism is quite different from the capitalism in the years of its birth. Financial order has become
autonomous from real production. Antagonism of classes is not an issue in this highly capitalist age. Why is that
the case? Some argue that gender, race, and ethnicity are more concrete experiences of the modern age than
class antagonism. But gender and race are too easily reconciled with the demands of liberal ideology. Class
remains more fundamental. But why class has got less attention when growing disparities of wealth and power
would point to the inverse?

The global market system undermined the capacity of states to control economies and makes the old negotiation
system obsolete where labor and capital negotiate. In industrialized countries, it promotes the randomization of
labor costs by disrupting domestic production, outsourcing, and hiring discount workers. By widening the gap
between rich and poor regions, it makes the latter the working class for the former. By reducing proletarians
everywhere to the weak and least intelligent, it compels them to compete against the most exploitative modes of
manufacture on the planet. The above reasons and the global dispersal of manufacture are likely to fragment
modernist forms of class consciousness.

Occult Economies and New Religious Movements: Privatizing the Millennium

Another striking consequence of Millennial Capitalism has been the global proliferation of occult economies.
Occult economy refers to an effort to conjure wealth by appeal to techniques that defy explanation in the
conventional terms of practical reason. Through the concept of the 'occult economy', the authors explore the
ways in which South Africans employ the practices of magic and sorcery to control the subtle, secret ways of
accumulation and impoverishment in the current global economy. Further elaborating on their argument, they
underline that such phenomena are not merely responses to what they call the millennial or messianic spirit of
contemporary capitalism, but are genuine cultural manifestations. These are the practical consequences of
neoliberal economy in their brief review of it.

Questions for discussion.

1. What is consumerism?
2. What are the main pr5actical consequences of millennial capitalism?
3. Why there is no class consciousness in the contemporary world?
4. Is there the way back from the predicaments of millennial capitalism?
5. What is the relevance of the article and the course?