The world forms one contradictory capitalist unity, not three separate worlds

Evidence

But one could start with a radically different premiss: namely, the proposition that we live not in three worlds but in one; that this world includes the experience of colonialism and imperialism on both sides of Jameson’s global divide (the ‘experience’ of imperialism is a central fact of all aspects of life inside the USA, from ideological formation to the utilization of the social surplus in military-industrial complexes); that societies in formations of backward capitalism are as much constituted by the division of classes as are societies in the advanced capitalist countries; that socialism is not restricted to something called ‘the Second World’ but is simply the name of a resistance that saturates the globe today, as capitalism itself does; that the different parts of the capitalist system are to be known not in terms of a binary opposition but as a contradictory unity – with differences, yes, but also with profound overlaps. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 163

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to world-systems theory and critiques of the three-worlds schema in dependency theory (e.g. Wallerstein). — connects to: Capitalism operated simultaneously through multiple modes of production, not a single wage-labor system. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 252; The world’s unity is material — one capitalist mode of production — not ideological. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 401; Postwar capitalist expansion, not decolonization, decisively shaped global contradictions. (+2 more)

Related

• A single world capitalist unity replaces the three-world schema (similarity 0.93)
• The world’s unity is material — one capitalist mode of production — not ideological. (similarity 0.87)
• Postwar capitalist expansion, not decolonization, decisively shaped global contradictions. (similarity 0.85)
• Global capitalism is hierarchical, not divided into monolithic blocs (similarity 0.83)
• The world cannot be compartmentalized into discrete First, Second and Third zones (similarity 0.83)
• The global capital-labour struggle unites the world more than any ideology (similarity 0.80)
• Post-colonial states grew more differentiated and competitive, not more unified (similarity 0.80)
• India’s capitalist economy refutes Jameson’s First-Third World binary. (similarity 0.79)
• Jameson’s First-Third World binary is empirically ungrounded against real economies. (similarity 0.79)
• The Western media invented a tripartite world based on military blocs, not production modes. (similarity 0.79)
• The Third World has continually collapsed into competing national units (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism’s global operation takes distinct nationally-specific forms across Asia and Africa (similarity 0.79)
• Postcolonial Third World states grew more competitive and fragmented, not unified. (similarity 0.78)
• Colonial capitalism produces the same public-private split it creates in the First World (similarity 0.78)
• Post-1956 Soviet theory relocated the primary contradiction to inter-state competition (similarity 0.78)