Overview

The Cancer Stage of Capitalism is a modern classic of critical philosophy and political economy, renowned for its depth and comprehensive research. It provides a step-by-step diagnosis of the continuing economic collapse in the US and Europe and has had an enormous influence on new visions of economic alternatives. John McMurtry argues that our world disorder of unending crises is the predictable result of a cancerous economic system multiplying out of all control and destroying ecological, social and organic life - a process he describes as 'global ecogenocide'. In this updated edition he explains the 'social immune response' required to fight this cancer, prescribing developments akin to the Occupy movement and the 'Pink Tide' democratic social transformation occurring in Latin America. In a global cultural orthodoxy that is increasingly hostile to life, this book shows the necessity and possibility of building a sustainable society based on a universal commitment to nature and humanity.

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Reviews

McMurtry's vision is a panoramic, encyclopedic, and breathtakingly original one, imbued with both high reason and (com)passion. And for the few amongst us that can still savour such delicacies, it is heady elixir indeed. -- Professor Rajani K. Kanth, Fellow, Harvard University Any entity that defines itself through exponential growth, be it a cancer tumour, the financial system or a runaway nuclear reaction, can only have one outcome: catastrophic failure with the sole chance of survival being the recognition of and response to the disorder. McMurtry provides both the diagnosis and antidote for this current state of our world. -- Marcel Schlaf, Professor of Chemistry, University of Guelph McMurtry's profound analysis of the consequences of the unrestrained and relentless pursuit of profits should be a source of grave concern for everyone who cares about the survival and reproduction of the species. The publication of this new edition of his classic study will be welcomed with enthusiasm by every rational member of the world community. -- James Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor Emeritus, Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota Duluth This new, revised edition confirms McMurtry's place as the foremost social philosopher of our time. It lays bare, in even more detail than the original, the structural causes of global life-crises. The conceptual framework, the outlines of a solution, and the reasons why cancer is not a metaphor but a real life-destructive process are as cogently articulated as one could hope for. Time, then, to send this message into the world to do its corrective work: a philosophical anti-oxident to reverse the cancerous tide and restore planetary health. -- Jeff Noonan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Windsor The Cancer Stage of Capitalism confronts and resolves the ultimate issue of our time - world survival. The real economy is being consumed by the global corporate cancer system at every level. Survival depends on understanding McMurtry's classic analysis and acting on it. -- Stephen Lendman, award-winning investigative journalist and author of How Wall Street Fleeces America McMurtry's classic study is more relevant than ever, as global finance capitalism multiplies itself at the expense of everything from vital public services to the ecosystems upon which all life depends. While southern Europe is being torn apart for the sake of debt servicing and the former Icelandic tiger recovers from a dramatic meltdown by imposing capital controls, this second edition brings much that is new, and a cure. Once again, McMurtry is ten years ahead of everyone else. -- Giorgio Baruchello, Professor of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Akureyri, and Editor of Nordicum-Mediterraneum John McMurtry's work has woken us up, inspired us, and motivated us to connect our struggle for the life-ground and the civil commons - the real common good that strengthens the people across Kenya, the old and young, the men and the women, the eco-feminists and the dispossessed. In the life-ground and the civil commons, we know our spirit cannot be broken. -- Wahu Kaara, Executive Director, Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN); African Social Forum With a sharp scalpel, John McMurtry reveals the carcinogenic money sequences invading and threatening human life and our planetary host. He goes on to articulate a conceptual framework in which life capital, the value it creates, and the civil commons which support it provide the way out of the global crisis. This remarkable book enables us to understand how the inner workings of the global market can be recognized and a social consciousness revitalized capable of recovering our common life-ground. -- Howard Woodhouse, Professor of Educational Foundations and Co-Director, University of Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit, author of Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market (2010) Few dare to recognise what this work diagnoses in depth - a self-multiplying money-sequence cancer metastasising across the world. But as a physician this work provides basic concepts of human health which free me from the malignant paradigm to guide my practice. -- Dr. Allan Connolly, (Past) President of Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War Cancer Stage was a crucial inspiration behind my own work on the pathologies of modern-day capitalism. Today, as those pathologies widen and deepen, and governments abandon even the pretense of trying to keep them in check, the new edition is timely and much-needed. McMurtry's analysis is brilliant, original, prescient, profound, and just plain right. Now revised and updated, it is more powerful than ever. -- Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power and Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children, Professor of Law, University of British Columbia

McMurtry's vision is a panoramic, encyclopedic, and breathtakingly original one, imbued with both high reason and (com)passion. And for the few amongst us that can still savour such delicacies, it is heady elixir indeed. -- Professor Rajani K. Kanth, Fellow, Harvard University Any entity that defines itself through exponential growth, be it a cancer tumour, the financial system or a runaway nuclear reaction, can only have one outcome: catastrophic failure with the sole chance of survival being the recognition of and response to the disorder. McMurtry provides both the diagnosis and antidote for this current state of our world. -- Marcel Schlaf, Professor of Chemistry, University of Guelph McMurtry's profound analysis of the consequences of the unrestrained and relentless pursuit of profits should be a source of grave concern for everyone who cares about the survival and reproduction of the species. The publication of this new edition of his classic study will be welcomed with enthusiasm by every rational member of the world community. -- James Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor Emeritus, Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota Duluth This new edition confirms McMurtry's place as the foremost social philosopher of our time. The revised Cancer Stage of Capitalism lays bare, in even more detail than the original, the structural causes of global life-crises. McMurtry rigorously exposes the opposed paths between which humanity must choose: money-driven life-collapse or civil commons enabled life-development and enjoyment. -- Jeff Noonan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Windsor The Cancer Stage of Capitalism confronts and resolves the ultimate issue of our time -- world survival. The real economy is being consumed by the global corporate cancer system at every level. Survival depends on understanding McMurtry's classic analysis and acting on it. -- Stephen Lendman, award-winning investigative journalist and author of How Wall Street Fleeces America McMurtry's classic study is more relevant than ever, as global finance capitalism multiplies itself at the expense of everything from vital public services to the ecosystems upon which all life depends. While southern Europe is being torn apart for the sake of debt servicing and the former Icelandic tiger recovers from a dramatic meltdown by imposing capital controls, this second edition brings much that is new, and a cure. Once again, McMurtry is ten years ahead of everyone else. -- Giorgio Baruchello, Professor of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Akureyri, and Editor of Nordicum-Mediterraneum John McMurtry's work has woken us up, inspired us, and motivated us to connect our struggle for the life-ground and the civil commons -- the real common good that strengthens the people across Kenya, the old and young, the men and the women, the eco-feminists and the dispossessed. In the life-ground and the civil commons, we know our spirit cannot be broken. -- Wahu Kaara, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, All Africa Conference of Churches

McMurtry's vision is a panoramic, encyclopedic, and breathtakingly original one, imbued with both high reason and (com)passion. And for the few amongst us that can still savour such delicacies, it is heady elixir indeed. -- Professor Rajani K. Kanth, Fellow, Harvard University Any entity that defines itself through exponential growth, be it a cancer tumour, the financial system or a runaway nuclear reaction, can only have one outcome: catastrophic failure with the sole chance of survival being the recognition of and response to the disorder. McMurtry provides both the diagnosis and antidote for this current state of our world. -- Marcel Schlaf, Professor of Chemistry, University of Guelph McMurtry's profound analysis of the consequences of the unrestrained and relentless pursuit of profits should be a source of grave concern for everyone who cares about the survival and reproduction of the species. The publication of this new edition of his classic study will be welcomed with enthusiasm by every rational member of the world community. -- James Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor Emeritus, Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota Duluth This new, revised edition confirms McMurtry's place as the foremost social philosopher of our time. It lays bare, in even more detail than the original, the structural causes of global life-crises. The conceptual framework, the outlines of a solution, and the reasons why cancer is not a metaphor but a real life-destructive process are as cogently articulated as one could hope for. Time, then, to send this message into the world to do its corrective work: a philosophical anti-oxident to reverse the cancerous tide and restore planetary health. -- Jeff Noonan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Windsor The Cancer Stage of Capitalism confronts and resolves the ultimate issue of our time - world survival. The real economy is being consumed by the global corporate cancer system at every level. Survival depends on understanding McMurtry's classic analysis and acting on it. -- Stephen Lendman, award-winning investigative journalist and author of How Wall Street Fleeces America McMurtry's classic study is more relevant than ever, as global finance capitalism multiplies itself at the expense of everything from vital public services to the ecosystems upon which all life depends. While southern Europe is being torn apart for the sake of debt servicing and the former Icelandic tiger recovers from a dramatic meltdown by imposing capital controls, this second edition brings much that is new, and a cure. Once again, McMurtry is ten years ahead of everyone else. -- Giorgio Baruchello, Professor of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Akureyri, and Editor of Nordicum-Mediterraneum John McMurtry's work has woken us up, inspired us, and motivated us to connect our struggle for the life-ground and the civil commons - the real common good that strengthens the people across Kenya, the old and young, the men and the women, the eco-feminists and the dispossessed. In the life-ground and the civil commons, we know our spirit cannot be broken. -- Wahu Kaara, Executive Director, Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN); African Social Forum With a sharp scalpel, John McMurtry reveals the carcinogenic money sequences invading and threatening human life and our planetary host. He goes on to articulate a conceptual framework in which life capital, the value it creates, and the civil commons which support it provide the way out of the global crisis. This remarkable book enables us to understand how the inner workings of the global market can be recognized and a social consciousness revitalized capable of recovering our common life-ground. -- Howard Woodhouse, Professor of Educational Foundations and Co-Director, University of Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit, author of Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market (2010)

Author Information

John McMurtry was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of the multi-volume Philosophy and World Problems, written for the UNESCO Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems, Value Wars, and The Cancer Stage of Capitalism.

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