Röpke saw industrialization as culturally destructive and favored agrarian life
Evidence
Apart from the affinities to colonial economics, Röpke’s nostalgic reasoning considers industrialization truly a mixed blessing in the West because of its tendency to help destroy the original culture through economic and political centralization. Röpke wanted every man to be a farmer (cf. Zmirnak 2001, 179–180). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1347
Categorization
- XREF: Complicates the standard picture of free-market neoliberals as cheerleaders for industrial capitalism; connects to the romantic-conservative strand in ordoliberalism. — connects to: Röpke advocated export agriculture over industrialization and mistrusted UN governance — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1288; Industrial capitalism operates as a machine that degrades and mechanizes colonized peoples — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 265; Biblical literalism died when industrialization severed life-experience from agrarian reality — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 835 (+2 more)
- SHARE: A surprise for anyone who assumes the Mont Pèlerin crowd was uniformly pro-industrial — Röpke’s agrarianism cuts against that stereotype.
Broader Connections
- Industrialized labor destroys manual skill and familiarity with things
#expands(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2307 - Industrial capitalism operates as a machine that degrades and mechanizes colonized peoples
#expands(0.82) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 265 - Biblical literalism died when industrialization severed life-experience from agrarian reality
#qualifies(0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 835 - Rapidly industrializing societies experience compressed cultural dislocation that fuels religious revival
#expands(0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 266