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La modernidad desbocada

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Overview

The program “Learn” examines Karl Marx’s ideas about “unbridled modernity” and updates them to contemporary politics, alongside the legacy of historical “Marxisms.”

Marx criticism as indignation

The speaker argues that Marx’s criticism is driven by indignation, not detached reason. For Marx, criticism functions as a form of denunciation, powered by anger that emerges when people recognize their “ignominious situation” as intolerable—then must collectively say “no.”

This indignation is also used to question why societies (for example, Argentina in the 1990s) failed to protest obvious injustice.

Why 20th-century socialist revolutions failed to deliver egalitarian dreams

The speaker claims the central problem was the absence of a mass-centered revolutionary vanguard. Instead of the masses acting as protagonists, vanguard elites monopolized ideological truth, turning ideology into dogma.

According to the speaker, this led to:

  • Party bureaucracies
  • Cults of personality
  • Dictatorship

Examples cited include the Soviet Union and China, along with a pointed critique of Castro’s long rule in Cuba, including executions. The speaker further argues that revolution must be continuous, requiring ongoing renewal of political cadres—because staying in power for decades “freezes” the revolution and blocks creative historical change.

Re-reading the Communist Manifesto as “historically optimistic”—but inverted

The speaker emphasizes Marx’s belief that the proletariat would bury the bourgeoisie. But the speaker argues reality did not match that expectation:

  • The proletariat was not the redeemer Marx envisioned.
  • Instead, the bourgeoisie displaced labor and marginalized the working class.

Why Marx “praised” the bourgeoisie (and why that praise was conditional)

The speaker argues that Marx presents the bourgeoisie as the most revolutionary class because it:

  • expands globally, and
  • creates a world market.

This expansion is portrayed as necessary for proletarian emergence and eventual revolution. The speaker interprets Marx’s stance as something like “falling in love” with the bourgeoisie’s historical role—connecting this idea to Marshall Berman, who suggests Marx’s position can look like praise.

Major critique: Marx’s colonialism logic and support for capitalist colonization

A key argument is that Marx’s view of colonialism effectively condemns colonized societies to wait for capitalist development under metropolitan rule—which the speaker treats as a “big mistake.”

From this, the speaker contends that Marx supported (at least in principle) the colonizing advance of bourgeoisies. The point is illustrated through discussion of:

  • Marx’s limited but harsh writings on colonialism
  • Marx’s opposition to Latin American independence, specifically his stance against Bolívar

Application to Argentina: “Marxist” readings tied to liberal-bourgeois progress myths

The speaker criticizes Argentine Marxists for mechanically applying Marx’s framework to national history. This, they argue, leads to narratives in which figures associated with capitalism become central, such as:

  • Bartolomé Mitre
  • Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
  • Julio Argentino Roca

The speaker claims these “capitalism” advocates did not build industrial development, but instead promoted a dependent model:

  • exporting raw products (grains, cattle)
  • importing manufactured goods

They argue the system eventually collapsed amid the 1929 crisis.

Capitalism as the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”: forces it cannot control

Using the Fantasia metaphor of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the speaker argues the bourgeoisie cannot contain what it unleashes. Updated to today, capitalism/neoliberal “market democracy” produces:

  • uncontrollable exclusion and marginalization
  • social instability
  • fear-driven politics (e.g., walls and security-first approaches)

The speaker characterizes the result as “pre-apocalyptic” risk conditions—not due to optimism or pessimism, but because capitalism’s internal dynamics continue generating catastrophe.

Overall, the program blends philosophical exposition of Marx with political critique: indignation as an engine of justice; disappointment in 20th-century socialist outcomes due to vanguard/dogma/bureaucracy; rejection of simplistic Marxist applications to colonial and national histories; and a final claim that neoliberal capitalism resembles an out-of-control force.

Presenters / Contributors (Referenced)

  • Karl Marx
  • Friedrich Engels
  • Hegel (referenced via Introduction to Hegel’s Philosophy of Right)
  • Marshall Berman
  • Walt Disney / Mickey Mouse (via Fantasia)
  • Paul Dukas (composer of the referenced score)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (referenced via a poem)
  • Bush (referenced)
  • Sarkozy (referenced)
  • John Wayne (referenced)
  • Bartolomé Mitre
  • Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
  • Julio Argentino Roca
  • Bolívar (Simón Bolívar, referenced)
  • Castro (Fidel Castro, referenced)

Additional place/time references mentioned

  • Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Argentina, India, England

Marx texts referenced

  • The Communist Manifesto
  • Works on British rule in India (titles paraphrased in the subtitles)
  • Writings on Bolívar

Original video