Critique Of The Fetishism Of Financialized Capita

Since the 1970s,the trend of financialization of the contemporary capitalist economy has continued to increase,and international financial monopoly capitalism has dominated,realizing the financial transformation of the state of financial capital,the world of human existence,and the inner subjectivity of human beings.In the historical development process of the continuous evolution of financial capital,while financialized capital is constantly changing the production of surplus value and new production relations,it also produces a more veiled fetishism of financialized capital.In the context of the fission and development of the human living world,it is an unavoidable theoretical and practical issue for contemporary Marxism to re-examine the specific form of the production mode and production process of financialized capitalism and the resulting new form of fetishism—financialized capital fetishism.Taking the fetishism of financialized capital as the core topic,it aims to conduct a critical examination of the deep connotation,manifestations and causes of the fetishism of financialized capital;to reveal the secrets that the fetishism of financialized capital conceals from reality under the specific historical environment and conditions,In this way,it promotes the expansion of research on the criticism of new forms of fetishism in the era of financialization;it explains the formation mechanism of fetishism in financialized capital,and proposes a methodology to crack down on fetishism in financialized capital,thus more comprehensively demonstrating the existence of human beings under the rule of financialized capital.Apart from the introduction,this article is divided into three parts: the first part mainly deals with the connotation,extension,characteristics and sources of the two core concepts of "financialized capital" and "fetishism of financialized capital".In the first part,the author sorts out and examines the connotation of the concept of "financialized capital".Then,it conducts a philosophical investigation on the characteristics of financialized capital.Finally,theoretically analyze and think about the essential connotation of "financialized capital fetishism" from the analysis of value forms,and draw conclusions.Specifically: First,in the investigation of the connotation of "financialized capital",the author focuses on the analysis of understanding financialized capital from historical evolution;understanding financialized capital in its difference from financial capital;understanding financial capital.After combing and analysis,it is found that the contemporary financial capital in a broad sense can be roughly divided into three dimensions since the time of Marx,namely,the interest-bearing capital proposed by Marx,the financial capital systematized by Hilferding and Lenin,and the financialized capital in the contemporary financialization era.And compare and analyze the disintermediation,unique movement mode,lending and financial capital’s monopoly,parasitic and decadent characteristics of interest-bearing capital with financialized capital,and deduce the connotation and boundary of financialized capital.One of the difficulties in proposing the concept of financialized capital is the difference between it and financial capital.Only when the concept of financial capital is strictly distinguished can the concept be legitimized.The distinction between the two can be made from five dimensions,that is,from the time dimension,spiritual characteristics,causes of formation,control methods,capital and entity relations.Financialized capital is a form of capital formed in the time and space of financialization,and financialization is an important dimension to understand financialized capital.Financialized capital is the dominant form of capital in the era of financialization.The characteristics and trends of financialization make capital turn to financialization.Affected by financialization,the generation of financialized capital is increasingly dependent on non-material production,its income is more dependent on the possession of income claims,and its expansion is more dependent on debt,and its manifestations are mainly represented by financial derivatives.Second,this paper summarizes the most notable characteristics of financialized capital from the perspectives of time,space and structure.In terms of time,it is characterized by the futurity of financialized capital.The biggest feature of financialized capital is that it has changed from the previous asset valuation method based on current prices and history to the valuation method of financialized assets with strong future expectations.People’s needs for prediction,risk aversion,emotional preference,advanced consumption and the future attributes of financialized products strengthen the future attributes of financialized capital.Spatially,it is characterized by the financialization of everyday life.Financialization is a profound spatial phenomenon,and financialized capital,as the entity of this phenomenon,has extended to people’s daily life in the economic and social fields.It is mainly manifested in the individual and family,the level of exploitation,the financial internalization of the individual and the financialization of the human way of thinking.Structurally,it is characterized by the totality of financialized capital.Financialized capital has overall structural characteristics,and financialization is a link in the organic development of capital,which has led to the formation of the "empire" of financialized capital.Financialized capital permeates all aspects of society in a generalized way.Through financial product innovation and financial system construction,financialized capital has grown new financial "organs".Third,the understanding of the essential connotation of the fetishism of financialized capital must be based on Marx’s positioning of the essence of fetishism in the relationship of "misrecognition","reversal" and "inversion" on the one hand,and on the other hand,we must grasp the essence of Marx’s value form.Analytical method.Based on the above two points,in the investigation of commodity fetishism,currency fetishism and capital fetishism,these three types of fetishism belong to the same form of value expression,that is,people "mistake" the exchange value attribute in the process of object exchange as the use of objects Value attributes,thus reflecting the relationship between people as the relationship between things.People’s pursuit of exchange value has become more and more obvious with the progressive development of commodities,currency and capital,resulting in the phenomenon of "fetishism" becoming more and more obvious.Different from the above three forms of fetishism,people’s pursuit of value form in interest-bearing capital fetishism has changed,from the pursuit of value production to the pursuit of value distribution.Production as the basis of distribution,from production in pursuit of value to distribution in pursuit of value,is an important turn and "reversal" of the direction of capital development.First,interest-bearing capital participates in the distribution of surplus value,then bank capital and industrial capital are combined,and finally monopoly is achieved to obtain more surplus value.Fetishism of financialized capital Due to the nature of financialized capital itself with future value attributes,people judge the current price of financialized assets based on future judgments.This is a kind of "inversion",because in essence,the so-called future price of assets is just a game for people to judge the future price of assets,not the real price of future assets,that is,the financialization of current assets.This process is realized through the separation of value and entity,the formation of awareness based on future judgment value,and the financial system in the era of financialization.The second part is the focus,difficulty and innovation of this article.This part mainly discusses the formation mechanism of financialized capital fetishism.The overall logic is: narrative mechanism,cultural mechanism,technical mechanism →(finance,culture,technology)common narrative → narrative value → financialized capital fetishism.This part mainly discusses three mechanisms of the formation of financialized capital fetishism,which are narrative mechanism,cultural mechanism and technical mechanism.In the discussion of the mechanism,the issue of the change of the value form has been run through,and at the end,the dimension of the narrative has been further expanded,and the issue of the new form of value,the narrative value,has been demonstrated from the three dimensions of financial narrative,cultural narrative and technical narrative.The presentation of narrative value is the most favorable argument for the establishment of the fetishism of financialized capital,so it is a key issue and also the place of innovation.First,the narrative mechanism is the most important mechanism for the formation of financialized capital fetishism.Narratives have changed the way value is generated,making narratives themselves capable of value creation.The narrative described in this article draws on the concept of "narrative" in Shiller’s narrative economics.In "Narrative Economics",the narrative is expressed as having a strong storytelling effect and exerting a huge impact on the economy.In this part,it first discusses the increasingly important position and role of narrative in the financial field.By compiling "wealth stories",it plays an important role in value empowerment such as "value assessment" and "financial alchemy".By looking for financial narrative materials,constructing the theme and structure of the story to realize the production of narrative value.Through "word of mouth" in daily life,"rating rhetoric" of institutions,and media communication capabilities,the dissemination of financial narratives is accelerated.The acceptance of the narrative is realized by reversely constructing the content of communication based on the wishes of the narrative object,and grasping the key of emotional resonance.Second,the cultural mechanism is an indispensable intermediate link in the transition from the rule of financialized capital to the rule of fetishism.First of all,financialization is the movement and external manifestation of financialized capital.Culture has penetrated into the logical development of financialization and has a great impact on the financial system,financial behavior,financial venues and financial motivations.Financial culture with strong cultural elements.Second,valuation culture shapes financial entities.Finance is composed of numerous different assessment cultures and institutional norms,and the setting,exclusion and absorption of financial subjects based on risk assessment.Under the influence of valuation culture,people are categorized,evaluated and placed,and selfdisciplined into objects based on the operating system of financialized capital.Finally,consumer culture will dissolve the value structure.Here we mainly refer to Baudrillard’s analysis of the disintegration of the value structure in the discussion of consumer society.Baudrillard believes that in the consumer society,the two levels of value are broken,the reference in the value structure disappears,and the traditional use value and exchange The value structure in which values are contrasted and related is destroyed.He further believes that the exchange in the consumer society is not an exchange between value entities,but a trading game with more symbols of freedom and arbitrariness.This cultural change in value eventually led to the emergence of a fetishization phenomenon.Third,discuss the technical mechanism of the formation of financialized capital fetishism,which is mainly manifested in the influence of information technology with digital technology as its core in contemporary times.Data is a substantive element in digital production activities,an important prerequisite for value generation,and a new type of "raw material" for the digital economy that is extracted and utilized.Among them,the digital platform manipulated by financialized capital has become an intermediary in the process of value exploitation,and has become an intermediary between people and traded goods.The digital platform has strengthened the concealment of the process of value exploitation,and everyone from ordinary workers to developing countries has become the target of digital platform exploitation.As a new fetish form of value symbolization,digital currency has no value in itself,and its high degree of uncertainty determines that it must become an illusion and illusion in the process of value symbolization.The digital currency represented by "Bitcoin" carries the meaning of the supermaterial category,so it has the nature of fetishism,and the spirit of freedom,equality,and justice is contained in it.The worship phenomenon is accompanied by the emergence of digital currency,and the value and price are seriously deviated from the inverted nature.It is obvious.Fourth,according to Marx’s argumentation on the critical theory of fetishism,drawing on Baudrillard’s analysis on symbol fetishism,it can be concluded that the establishment of new forms of fetishism must have its corresponding value form.Under the joint action of narrative mechanism,cultural mechanism and technical mechanism,narrative value has become a new form of value expression in the era of financialization.The generation of value in the era of financialization is inseparable from narrative,and narrative,as the basis and prerequisite for the realization of value,has become a new value form and value form.What needs to be added here is that cultural mechanisms and technical mechanisms themselves contain narratives,and the narrative mechanisms here refer to financial narratives.Therefore,the generation of narrative value not only depends on financial narratives,but also depends on cultural narratives and technical narratives.Regarding cultural narratives,Randy Martin,the main representative of financialized cultural theory,believes that finance is not only an economic form,but also a cultural practice and a script for how to live our daily lives.Cultural narrative is manifested in the fact that cultural activities such as symbolic culture,discourse,and advertisements have a story-like plot and structure,which ultimately increases the recognition of commodity value by the narrative objects.Technical narrative is manifested as the superposition of narrative,Internet technology and financial technology.As William Goetzman,a famous American financial history expert,pointed out: "The story of finance is actually a story of technology." Technical narrative also shows the value attribute of technology.Technology Only by serving the subject and meeting the needs of the subject can value be generated.The third part mainly deals with the problems of human existence under the rule of financialized capital fetishism,and how to deal with these problems.What are the consequences of the fetishism of financialized capital? How do these consequences take the form of fetishism? What are the theoretical basis,practical subject and Chinese plan to deal with these problems? The consequences of the fetishism of financialized capital can be divided into two aspects.It strengthens the domination of fetishism over people and promotes the formation of people’s consciousness of worshiping financialized capital.First,the intensification of the fetishism of financialized capital over man,first of all,manifests itself in the intensification of income inequality between the two levels.By controlling the decision-making power of value generation,by promoting the value-added logic prior to the utility logic,by promoting the decline in the proportion of labor income,and by responding to risks and inflation,financial capital finally realizes the redistribution of wealth,leading to the polarization of wealth.inevitable.Second,it is manifested as the inversion of the value distribution system.The domination of financial capital fetishism has led to the accelerated formation of two illusions of value determinism in the value system,the value system based on labor and the value system based on financial narrative.The split of the value system is manifested in the division of the distribution system,the difference between groups that depend on labor and wage income,and groups that rely mainly on property and financial asset investment income.Most people live in a labor-based distribution system,while a small number of people live in a distribution system dominated by financial narrative values.In the end,it led to the mystification of the value distribution system.The fetishism of financialized capital obscures the production of surplus value,the source of surplus value production is difficult to determine,the value-added game relies on imagination and arbitrary speculation about the future,the excessive use of credit,and the blurring of the boundaries between labor and leisure activities have all led to The value distribution system becomes mysterious.Second,another important consequence of the fetishism of financialized capital is the formation of people’s consciousness of worshiping financialized capital.This part discusses the formation process of this worship consciousness from three aspects,namely: the financialization of "things",the worship of financialization,and the shaping of human values by the worship of financialized capital.First of all,how to understand things is an important aspect in the study of fetishism,and materialization is obviously the result and consequence of fetishism.Things in the era of financialization have turned to financialization,that is,things have turned to "future things" and "narrative things".The materialized structure in the fetishism of financialized capital reflects the relationship between man and existing things as the relationship between man and future beings.The narratization of things has also led to story-based and narratization based on the value generation of things,and the generation of its value is more determined by the process of the generation of things itself,rather than the determined results of the potential state of things.Second,the homage to financialization.Judging from the object of worship,it is not only manifested as people’s worship of virtual currency,financial commodities,and financialized capital,but also manifested as the whole society’s respect for financialization,especially the financialization of the economy,financialization of capital,and corporate financialization.The worship and superstition of the overall financialization of contemporary society.Possession manifests itself in the homage to the financialization of space and the capitalization of time and the power of financialized capital.Finally,the worship of financialized capital shapes people’s values.It should be pointed out that although the fetishistic ideology of financialized capital reverses the relationship between value dimensions,it is not false and wrong.It is a true reflection of capitalist production relations.This inverted relationship leads to restless,anxious emotions.This fetish consciousness in turn strengthens the generalization of fetishism and promotes the rule of fetishism.The problem of deciphering the fetishism of financialized capital and human liberation should be dealt with theoretically,subjectively and practically.Its specific response adopts the following strategies: First,take Marx’s critique of the logic of capital as the theoretical basis.First of all,revealing the inherent contradictions of capital logic is a prerequisite for dispelling financial fetishism.The core logic of capital is the logic of value-added.Marx revealed the contradiction of "automatic capital appreciation",and labor is the real source of value.In addition,capital appreciation in the era of financialization generates surplus value and realizes the accumulation of financialized capital.Secondly,the limitation of capital and its selfnegation are the realistic basis for eliminating the fetishism of financialized capital.The inherent contradiction in the logic of capital is fundamentally expressed as the contradiction between capitalist socialized mass production and capitalist private ownership.Capital strives to fully develop productive forces and the narrowness of capital itself constitutes the core of capital’s internal contradictions.In the era of financialization,instead of eliminating the original contradictions,the internal contradictions of capital have hijacked the entire society and accelerated the process of the demise of capitalism.Finally,criticize and disintegrate capitalist private ownership,and eliminate the physical form of financialized capital fetishism.Reestablishing individual ownership is such a path to disintegrate capitalist private ownership.Rebuilding individual ownership does not mean completely negating all elements of capitalism,but to develop a more advanced form of social system based on the development of its productive forces.Second,based on the "real individual" as the subject of dispelling fetishism.The formation of this subject requires three conditions,from the subject of practice to the subject of revolution,the accumulation of free time,and the scientization of the subject of labor.Under the rule of financialized capital,debt has become an attribute of the entire society.As individuals,they can often be classified into two opposing social classes,resulting in the confrontation and struggle between the "creditor class" and the "debt class".For human beings,time not only constitutes the basic form of human existence a priori,but also becomes the basic condition for human liberation empirically.Free time is the final and dynamic cause of the revolutionary subject.Free time is the final and dynamic cause of the revolutionary subject.Free time provides space for the rich personality development of the revolutionary subject,and the rich personality development is also an important component of the awakening of the class consciousness of the revolutionary subject.The scientization of the labor subject has become the formation mechanism of the revolutionary subject.The scientization of the labor subject is related to the development of cognitive capitalism.The labor force has mastered the technological advantages of the development of productive forces and gained a sense of liberation in the process of confronting capital.The process of dissolving fetishism by the revolutionary subject will go through a process from materialized existence to social existence.Third,China adopts the method of setting up "traffic lights" for capital,which provides a Chinese strategy for dispelling the fetishism of financialized capital.Adhere to the party’s leadership and the socialist system;define the historical position of capital as the factor of production;standardize and orderly guide the development of financial capital;further promote inclusive finance and implement financial sharing;actively cultivate a culture of integrity and practice core values And other specific measures to ensure the healthy and orderly development of capital,prevent excessive financialization of capital,and prevent the occurrence and development of capital exploitation.