Portside

''The modern world has spread many things: the rationality of science; the rule of law; and the messy, but generally robust, forms of democracy. Yet none of these is as contested as capitalism. Capitalism has run into repeated crises of profitability. But it has also run into periodic crises of meaning. In every capitalist economy there are anti-capitalist movements, activists, and even political parties, in a way that there are no longer anti-democratic movements, activists, and parties. There are hundreds of millions of sceptics and cynics who look with distaste on the bland reassurances of corporate advertising – dissidents in their heads even if not on the streets. For all its achievements in raising living standards, capitalism has, quite literally, failed to make enough sense – not just for the losers but often for the winners.'