Time, Neoliberal Power, and the Advent of Marx's "Common Ruin" Thesis

Abstract

Marx and Engels warned that class struggle would result "either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes." This essay argues that through the effect of neoliberal networked economy, we have had both a "revolutionary reconstitution of society" and the "common ruin" of both bourgeois and proletarian classes. Their "common ruin" is expressed through their lack of viability as the basis for their respective democratic projects - liberalism and socialism. The revolution in information technologies and the rise of the neoliberal network society has transformed the nature of political power that had been founded upon traditional industri..