War mobilization persuaded elites that human life need not be subordinated to economic laws

Evidence

New social sensibilities overtook impersonal economic laws as the “universal arbit[ers]” of social relations. It entailed a breaking out of the “tyranny of a particular economic creed”: human life could no longer be “subordinated” to the “imperious demand for the production of wealth.” — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 249

Categorization

• XREF: This mood of post-war emancipation from scarcity doctrine is the exact premise that austerity doctrine would later deny; connects to Mattei’s account of Keynesianism’s defeat and to the modern ‘there is no alternative’ framing. — connects to: State wartime intervention exposed the natural order of capitalism as a political choice — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 169; Classical political economy limited war by a principle of economy in spending lives. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 568; State intervention during wartime made capitalist exploitation overtly political and vulnerable to resistance — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 173 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• State wartime intervention exposed the natural order of capitalism as a political choice #expands (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 169
• State intervention during wartime made capitalist exploitation overtly political and vulnerable to resistance #expands (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 173
• Classical political economy limited war by a principle of economy in spending lives. #complicates (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 568
• Workers’ wartime indispensability empowered postwar demands to transform the economic system #corroborates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 174