The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity

by Eugene McCarraher

Mumford perceived that Marxists shared with capitalists an enchantment with the paleotechnic drive for colossal productive power. In his view, Marx’s willingness to favor the expansion of productive forces over the freedom and dignity of workers left a blemish on all forms of socialism. Because they considered capitalism a necessary (albeit excruciating) phase in the dialectical unfolding of history, the left, Mumford feared, endorsed a socialist acquiescence in the remorseless religion of power. The socialist celebration of capitalist ingenuity and dynamism sanctioned a ritual sacrifice of human beings on the altar of history, while the complaint that “capitalism does not go far enough” was belied by its amoral, predatory abandon. “It actually does go farther,” Mumford noted dryly, and its protean energy would carry with it anyone—like socialists—deluded enough to think that it could be harnessed to do any other bidding than its own.