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1 year agoThanks for the fact-check.
Thanks for the fact-check.
Bold to imply that Polanyi was not a Marxist. Certainly not an orthodox Marxist, to be fair. But due to McArthyism he had to use a lot of euphemisms for more explicitly Marxist terms (I remember reading that he had to live in Canada and commute into the USA to teach because his wife was a radical forbidden from entering the US).
Further, Polanyi’s concepts of embeddedness and the indeterminacy of capital became pivotal to the Marxist labour process theorist like Braverman and Burawoy. You can’t read a single Marxist anthropology paper without seeing Polanyi’s influence either, he is thoroughly a part of the Marxist anthro / soci canon.
I don’t disagree but I still can’t help myself from enjoying Doctor Who.
But you’d think a time travelling alien would be a lot more terrified and saddened by the material conditions of the 20/21st century. The Doctor can travel time and space and thus would have seen the very best and most equitable systems sentient beings have ever created. The show definitely forwards a very hobbesian ideology in that even when humans / sentient beings have no scarcity, they still end up doing evil things because apparently sentient beings are inherently selfish and bad.
And I’m sure there is an argument that the doctor saving the day reflects a sort of “white man’s burden” discourse.
With all that said, i still think it’s one of the best sci-fi TV shows.