Ivo Budil

The unbearable ease of being right and left and a new political power

Discuss

Few concepts are treated with such carelessness and arbitrariness in the contemporary public space today as "left" and "right". The leading spokesman of an allegedly "right-wing" movement accuses the representatives of another "right-wing" formation of "Bolshevism". A new "communist international" is said to have settled in Brussels. The US president warns of the rise of "communism". Not Chinese, Vietnamese or Cuban, but purely American (and maybe big and beautiful). We are witnessing a complete emptying of the concepts that have given Western political life meaning, ethos and compass for more than two centuries.

Read full text

METAPHYSICS OF CAPITALISM: Labor, Time, and the Second Founding of Modernity

Discuss

This book presents a theoretical framework for analyzing capitalism as an ontological regime of social mediation. Its central argument is the dichotomy between latent and manifest capitalism — an ontological, not historical, distinction based on the degree to which abstract labor becomes universalized as the principle of social recognition. Latent capitalism designates regimes where capital, exchange, and accumulation exist, but abstract labor does not become the universal norm of recognition. The value-form remains sectorally limited, the state is not structurally bound to permanent accumulation, and time is not the absolute measure of human worth. Manifest capitalism, by contrast, represents a configuration in which abstract labor becomes an all-pervasive principle of social legitimacy: time measured by productivity penetrates all spheres of life, the state depends structurally on value reproduction, and individuals are evaluated by their capacity to bear labor-power. The book is structured in three parts. Part I (chapters 1–4) introduces the ontological framework and historically illustrates the difference between latent (Asian civilizations, European latent forms) and manifest configurations (Amsterdam as ontological rupture). Part II (chapters 5–9) analyzes the structural logic of manifest capitalism: time as ontological structure (Heidegger, Husserl), growth as structural imperative, autopoietic system reproduction (Luhmann), and anthropological-existential limits of capital. Part III (chapters 10–13) challenges the “standpoint of labor” (Postone), presents a thought experiment of a society based on status of existence (Arendt, Jung), analyzes the limits of modernity, and formulates the concept of a second founding of modernity as a possible shift from productivity to existence as the ontological basis of human dignity. Methodologically, the work combines Marx's critique of political economy, phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger), systems theory (Luhmann), and reinterpretations of Marxism (Postone, Arrighi, Wallerstein). It introduces original concepts including the autopoietic system of labor (applied to state socialism), society of status of existence, second founding of modernity, and the cycle of absorption of critique. This is not a political program but an ontological reflection on structural possibilities. It argues that modernity now has the material means to separate survival from labor integration—opening a horizon where human dignity might be reconceived beyond performance.

Read full text

The Dual Nature of Modern Extremism

Discuss

The extremism that troubles modern civilization is not primarily a political phenomenon, but a state of mind. The extremist is a prisoner of a particular idea, which he places above the world around him. He accepts no compromise, reconciliation, or modus vivendi with people, society, and institutions that do not share his beliefs. He seeks to transform, persuade, or destroy them. To the extremist, tolerance is a sign of weakness and capitulation.

Read full text