The Hythloday, or a Marxian Phenomenology of Use, Exchange, and Consciousness

7. Resolution of the conflict of consciousnesses

1. 1. This conflict of consciousnesses is unresolvable through simple coercion of operative consciousness from without, i.e. by reflective consciousness. Operative consciousness is a philistine which mocks everything impractical and prides itself on its sacrifice of every wisdom for the sake of practicality.
   2. The conflict of consciousnesses is also unresolvable through the sale of the discovery of reflective consciousness, e.g. in an overpriced academic book. At first glance, selling the discovery of reflective consciousness enters this discovery into operative consciousness as a commodity whose usability for the other and exchangeability for money must be estimated. Having said so, the sale of this discovery, or, rather, the operative consciousness of this sale, still contains an implicit negativity reflective consciousness must, again, discover. If this second negativity is also sold, the operative consciousness of this sale would contain a third negativity reflective consciousness, again, discovers. Infinite regress ensues.
   3. The resolution to the conflict of consciousnesses must be found in operative consciousness itself. Reflective consciousness, reflecting on operative consciousness, finds consciousness to not be static but in motion. Our operative consciousness of exchange changes as the mode of exchange we engage in changes.
   4. In the transition from the practical mode of exchange to hoarding, our preoccupation with use changes. We remain preoccupied with the uses the other can put our commodities to, as the usability of our commodities for the other determines if the other purchases our commodities. Having said so, our preoccupation with our own uses changes. As we engage in hoarding, we do not aim to acquire commodities for use and satisfaction of needs. Rather, this aim of the practical mode of exchange, and the purchases of commodities to achieve this aim, confront us as our enemy, in other words, as an other which cannot be incorporated into hoarding.
   5. In the transition from the practical mode of exchange to hoarding, the implicit negativity within our operative consciousness, which is the source of the conflict of consciousnesses, diminishes and becomes explicit in parts. The implicit negativity of our operative consciousness of the practical mode of exchanging consists of our failure to arrive at two conclusions: first, the uses which occupy our mind cannot be exchange and vice versa. Second, having failed to arrive at the first conclusion, we fail, also, to conclude our (operative) consciousness of exchange is a negative one which occupies us with what exchange is not and tells us nothing of what exchange is. In the transition to our operative consciousness of hoarding, the first conclusion, or the mutual exclusion of exchange and use, becomes explicit in parts. In our operative consciousness of hoarding, we find hoarding and the aim of the practical mode of exchange, i.e. our uses of commodities we purchase, to be mutually exclusive. In simultaneity, of course, our preoccupation with the other’s uses remains and continues to prevent us from arriving at the conclusion exchange cannot be the other’s uses and vice versa.
   6. In our operative consciousness of hoarding, the resolution to the conflict of consciousnesses is glimpsed. If we transit to a mode, or modes, of exchange which is expressly impractical, and the concomitant operative consciousness which cognizes the mutual exclusion of these modes of exchange from every use, the conflict of consciousnesses is resolved at its source, i.e. the implicit negativity reflective consciousness discovers in our operative consciousness of the practical mode of exchange.
   7. Having said so, the movement of operative consciousness continues in a further transition to capital and the resolution glimpsed in the operative consciousness of hoarding vanishes from sight. The capitalist is a “rational miser”18placeholder, of dialectical reason, who appropriates the other of the miser, i.e. purchases and the uses of purchased commodities, as their means of accumulation. The capitalist throws money into circulation in order to have money return in a greater quantity. The merchant buys low to sell high. The moneylender lends money to collect this money with interest.19placeholder The industrialist buys the labor power of workers to consume this labor power, produce commodities, and sell these commodities for profit.20placeholder The stock trader buys stocks in anticipation of a rise of value to sell these stocks.21placeholder Purchases, and, in general, activities which require the spending of money, e.g. moneylending, confront the capitalist not as their enemy, but as their means of accumulation. Their uses of purchased commodities, likewise, confront the capitalist not as their enemy, but as their means of accumulation: commodities bought by the merchant and stock trader are commodities usable in sales to accumulate money. The labor power bought by the industrialist is a commodity usable in the production of commodities for sale and accumulation of money. Finally, the quantity of money the capitalist acquires, too, confronts the capitalist not as money to be hoarded, i.e. not used, but as money to be thrown back into circulation to make more money, in other words, as their means of accumulation.
   8. This sublation of the other of the miser, however, restores in full, within the operative consciousness of capital, the preoccupation with use which is disrupted in hoarding. This preoccupation, of course, is not a preoccupation with use for the sake of satisfying needs, but use for the sake of accumulating money, but these uses remain uses which cannot occur until after exchange has been completed, and whose mutual exclusion with exchange, due to the capitalist’s preoccupation with use, cannot be realized.
   9. The resolution to the conflict of consciousnesses is to be found in the continuation of this movement. Reflective consciousness, reflecting on the movement of operative consciousness and learning its language, so to speak, becomes, also, able to speak to operative consciousness in its own language and guide its movement to the conclusion reflective consciousness desires.

8. The proletariat and the bourgeoisie

“The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own efforts, is able to develop only trade union consciousness…The theory of socialism, however, grew out of the philosophic, historical, and economic theories elaborated by the educated representatives of the propertied classes, by intellectuals”.22placeholder

1. 1. In the first place, we do not find among workers the condition for the realization of the implicit negativity of their operative consciousness of exchange and, therefore, also the conflict of consciousnesses. The subsistence wages they are paid do not permit them the luxury of hoarding. Workers are entirely consumed in their efforts to survive, i.e. their sale of their labor power, wage labor under industrialists, and reproduction of their labor power. Having said so, workers, in their efforts to survive, already come together to form trade unions to demand better wages and benefits.
   2. We find among capitalists the condition for the realization of the implicit negativity of their operative consciousness of exchange and the conflict of consciousnesses. Capitalists engage, for the most parts, in capital, but their economic conditions, unlike those of workers, are no obstacle to their engaging in hoarding as well. In simultaneity, however, capitalists also compete among themselves. Triumphs and defeats in their competition develop within capitalists conflicting sentiments. Every triumph affirms their desire for money and the means by which they have accumulated money. Every loss develops within capitalists resentment for other capitalists and a misguided feeling of kinship with workers: they have felt, in their wallet, the oppression of other capitalists. Their business acumen also develops within them an opportunism which sees cooperation with workers as a means to re-gaining their wealth and standing among the bourgeoisie. Myriad directions in which capitalists seek the resolution of their conflict of consciousnesses emerge from their conflicting sentiments. Apologists, reformers, opportunists, and revolutionaries come into being. More generally, their directions can be divided into two: among the bourgeoisie, through their continued pursuits of profit and the evolution of capital their pursuits stand to bring about, and among the proletariat, through their efforts to establish a new mode, or modes, of exchange where they and workers alike enjoy more dignified lives.
   3. Capitalists who sympathize with workers approach workers and find workers too consumed in their efforts to survive to imagine a future which is not a repetition of the present. Capitalists, therefore, take it upon themselves to design ideal societies which promise themselves and workers more dignified lives and, therefore, rouse the workers, and where, more importantly, their conflict of consciousnesses is resolved, or stands to be resolved. Capitalists exhaust their intellect and resources to promote their designs through publications and model experiments. The scale and efficacy of their efforts are, however, inevitably, limited by their intellect and resources. Their designs are limited by their social experience. The number of printing presses they can enlist, the scale of their model experiments, and so forth, are limited by their wealth.
   4. The utopian efforts of capitalists move the reformers of capital to tears, who double their efforts to improve the economic conditions of workers. The utopian efforts of capitalists, the efforts of reformers, and, finally, the efforts of trade unions together improve the economic conditions of workers, which, finally, permit workers the luxury of hoarding. Workers secure for themselves the condition for the realization of the implicit negativity of their consciousness of exchange and the conflict of consciousnesses. In simultaneity, the utopian efforts of capitalists also educate workers who, therefore, gain visions of ideal societies where they enjoy more dignified lives, or, better yet, have lived these visions in model experiments. Educated workers and capitalists who sympathize with workers come together to form political parties, both to defend the interests of workers in a society which has become more sympathetic to the plight of workers, and to perfect the designs and theories produced in the previous utopian efforts of capitalists. Political parties, unlike the utopian efforts of capitalists, do not depend on the intellect and resources of capitalists alone, but capitalists and workers both. Therefore, the scale of the parties’ activities can be expanded through the expansion of their membership, and the efficacy of their methods increased through continuous development. Designs and theories produced in the utopian efforts of capitalists are mastered by workers, tested against social reality in praxis and the combined social experiences of capitalists and workers in theoretical criticism, and gradually perfected through repeated praxis and criticism. In simultaneity, as the political parties have both bourgeois and proletarian members, their unity is, inevitably, riven by class differences, and, even, conflicts. Members of the political parties make constant efforts to preserve the unity of the parties against these differences and conflicts, e.g. through democratic centralism, purges, the practice of self-criticism, and so forth.
   5. In their defense of the interests of workers, the political parties enter into alliances with trade unions, unaffiliated workers, bourgeois reformers, and opportunists. Factions unite against the oppression of capitalists who have exploited workers and triumphed against other capitalists. The unity of the alliances, however, mask conflicts which continue underground. Political parties strive to expand their membership and spread their influence into the ranks of their allies. Bourgeois reformers and opportunists continue, outside of the alliances, to exploit workers. Within the alliances, they maintain a tenuous friendship with their allies: as soon as the alliances have become expressly anti-capitalist, their wealth and standing among the bourgeoisie have been re-gained, or they see they stand to do so through other means, they abandon their allies for the bourgeoisie. Factions are absorbed, subjugated, driven out, or leave by themselves. The balance of power within the alliances is gradually unbalanced. Subterranean conflicts come into the open. The alliances collapse.
   6. In addition to open conflicts, stabler alliances also emerge from the ruins of the collapsed alliances. The political parties which triumphed in the subterranean conflicts of the collapsed alliances have expanded their membership and gained firmer allies. Having said so, political parties, having witnessed the collapses of the previous alliances and contributed to the collapses, also take precautions against the collapses of their new alliances. Control, direct or indirect, is exerted over its allies to suppress any subterranean conflict, or ensure subterranean conflicts do not escalate to the point they tear the alliances apart. Hence, where the collapsed alliances are nominal alliances between factions which continue their conflicts underground, the new alliances are nominal alliances between the triumphant political parties and their subsidiary organizations, whose difference and independence from the triumphant parties are in name alone.
   7. Political parties expand their sphere of influence through collapsed alliances. They gradually gain an advantage over the bourgeoisie, and, even, succeed in subjugating the bourgeoisie to a level, e.g. through the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat in a nation. As soon as they have done so, the bourgeoisie no longer confronts the political parties as their enemy, but as their enemy whom they have subjugated. In their confrontation with the bourgeoisie, they are also confronted with themselves, or their subjugation of the bourgeoisie. The internal divisions of the political parties and their subsidiary organizations gradually become the object of consciousness of every member of the parties and their subsidiary organizations. The political parties have arrived at a critical juncture. They have gained a solid foothold in their conflicts with the bourgeoisie and must maintain this foothold. The task of preserving the unity of the political parties and their subsidiary organizations against their internal divisions, i.e. class differences and conflicts between bourgeois and proletarian members, become urgent. If they have, previously, overlooked their internal divisions in order to, more effectively, combat the bourgeoisie, they no longer have any choice, on the subjugation of the bourgeoisie, but to confront their internal divisions. As a result, however, proletarian members become suspicious of bourgeois members and look upon them as potential, or, even, outright, enemies. Bourgeois members, looking at themselves through the eyes of proletarian members, become paranoid. Genuine opportunists fear exposure and double down on their deception to manipulate the internal conflicts to their favor. Committed members fall into a conflict between their commitment to the parties and their perception by other members. The unity of the political parties and their subsidiary organizations is fractured by the very efforts of its members to preserve their unity.
   8. As the unity of the political parties and their subsidiary organizations becomes fractured, the subjugated bourgeoisie combines forces with unsubjugated bourgeois elements, e.g. foreign bourgeois states, and rises in rebellion, e.g. civil war. Their rebellion escalates internal conflicts within the political parties and their subsidiary organizations, as members who are in favor of continuing internal conflicts, having already pressed myriad charges against the members they aim to persecute, have gained another: they blame other members for the parties and subsidiary organizations’ failure to subjugate the bourgeoisie. In simultaneity, the rebellion of the bourgeoisie also provokes a response from the persecuted members who, having already a cause to be critical of the internal conflicts, have gained another: they take their persecutors to task for weakening the unity of the parties and subsidiary organizations. These members enter into conflict with others who wish to continue the internal conflicts. The result of this conflict is determined by the strength of the rebelling bourgeoisie, and the extent of persecution within the political parties and their subsidiary organizations, which determines the strength of the two conflicting factions. The rebelling bourgeoisie either becomes freed from their subjugator who collapses from within, or a new order emerges within the political parties and their subsidiary organizations, where one faction triumphs over the other and gains supremacy, as well as a new order without, as the reformed parties and subsidiary organizations restore their subjugation of the bourgeoisie.
   9. In the movement from the efforts of workers to survive and the division of the bourgeoisie, to the collapses or reformations of political parties and their subsidiary organizations, and their failure to, or subjugation, of the bourgeoisie, the conflict of consciousness ceases to be a conflict between the theory and practice of the bourgeoisie. It becomes conflicts within and between political organizations and social classes. Reflective consciousness ceases to be the theory of the bourgeoisie. It becomes, in the movement, the utopian efforts of capitalists, political parties, persecuted factions in political parties and their subsidiary organizations, and so forth. The corresponding operative consciousnesses are workers (utopian efforts of capitalists), the utopian efforts of capitalists, allies of the political parties, the political parties and their subsidiary organizations (political parties), persecuting factions within the parties and subsidiary organizations (persecuted factions), and so forth. The implicit negativity of the operative consciousness of the practical mode of exchange announces itself in every reflective consciousness. It heralds war in every corner of society. On the end of the movement, the conflict of consciousnesses is still unresolved. Reflective consciousness is still required to reflect on the movement of operative consciousness, learn its language, and guide it to achieve the resolution of its conflict with reflective consciousness.
   10. The movement of consciousness does not terminate on the resolution of the conflict of consciousnesses. Rather, the movement of consciousness is, potentially, infinite. As soon as the division between subject and object has emerged, the subject has constituted the object, in its confrontation with the constituted object, been confronted with itself and become self-conscious, and, finally, achieved a consciousness of its self-consciousness, an infinite regress threatens. The consciousness of self-consciousness can discover, within self-consciousness, a more fundamental incompleteness than the implicit negativity we have discussed. Self-consciousness does not include within itself its own subject, i.e. the subject which is conscious of itself in self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is, therefore, incomplete and, outside of self-consciousness, is an unconscious remainder of the subject. Efforts to include this reminder of the subject within self-consciousness, succeeding in including this remainder also reproduce this remainder outside of self-consciousness as a second unconscious remainder. The infinite regress which threatens is an infinite series of incomplete self-consciousnesses and unconscious remainders of the subject. Each unconscious remainder is also always included in the subsequent self-consciousness in the series. This infinite regress, or movement from self-consciousness to self-consciousness, is a potential of consciousness. Consciousness has already been thrown into the proximity of this potential by the conflict of consciousnesses and its efforts to resolve this conflict. Its self-objectification and pursuit of complete and unified self-knowledge prepare it for a final and eternal journey. On the resolution of the conflict of consciousnesses, consciousness is set to embark on this journey.

If we flee, we gain one.

If we advance, two.