Notice of the Passing of Takeshi Sakai

 

Mr. Takeshi Sakai (pen name Hitoshi Ebara), a member of the board of directors of the

Association for diffusing cultural wisdom and a central figure in our theoretical activities, passed away on August 8, 2024. He was 83 years old.

 

Mr. Sakai was started as the activist of the Bund (Communist League), who participated in the 1960 struggle against the Japan‐U.S. Security Treaty, and after he started activities on the line of armed struggle in the 1970s, he was wrongfully arrested by the police in 1976. While in jail, he continued his research on capitalism and other topics, and after his release established a new interpretation of the value-form theory. The interpretation was that money cannot be created from commodities in the value-form theory, which develops a logic in which commodities are the subject, but the value-form theory can only be created by the unconscious social action of commodity owners who receive signs from commodity in the exchange process theory in which commodity owners appear. In other words, the will of the commodity owner is unconsciously determined by the physical object of the commodity. This was the core of Sakai's theory of materialization.

After Mr. Sakai was released on bail in 1983, he summed up the New Left movements up to that time as follows. If the ultimate goal of communism is the abolition of commodities, money, and capital, and if these commodities, money, and capital are the result of willful domination by physical phenomena and are established through the unconscious joint actions of people, then it is impossible to abolish them only by exercising political power, which is a willful act. Therefore, a social movement that bypasses the willful domination of physical phenomena is necessary. Mr. Sakai then attempted to open a new horizon of criticism of capitalism by defining the logic of morphology derived from the theory of value morphology as cultural knowledge. Based on such a summary, he turned to social movements at the end of the 1980s, and was involved in the founding of “ Seikatsu-club Kyoto El Coop”, among others. His theoretical activities after his conversion can be found on his website “office-ebara.org”.

 

Unfortunately, however, Mr. Sakai's change of course was not well understood by activists and theorists (researchers) on the left, and for this reason, he began preparing to establish the Association in 2017 in order to develop and disseminate his theory through this Association. Some of the results of Mr. Sakai's activities since the establishment of the association can be found on this website.

Mr. Sakai's attitude of not sticking to the Marxism of the past but actively working on new perspectives has remained unchanged until recent years. For example, through his reading of the third draft of “Capital” written by Marx, he has grasped modern capitalism as credit capitalism, in which interest-generating capital outweighs and dominates real capital, and also addresses findings by Maurizio Lazzarato who is an Italian sociologist and philosopher, and D. Graeber. We are also attempting to decipher Bruno Latour's problematics in order to reconsider modern science and battleground warfare.

Furthermore, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he pursued “overcoming the culture of war” through anthropological thinking, with the hope that this war would be the last war. Also, shortly before his death, Takeshi had just started working again on the task of creating a Japanese-style social solidarity economy network. Unfortunately, his goal was still unachieved, and he left us suddenly. We, the remaining members of the association, are determined to carry on Mr. Sakai's theoretical and practical activities from our respective standpoints. We look forward to your continued supports for the activities of the Association for diffusing cultural wisdom.

 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　August 11, 2024.  All members of the Association for diffusing cultural wisdom

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 Now, social-revolution from here! Let's create new cultural wisdom for life-based politics!​

   

​★A list of Specifications for the Commodity and Money as Divinities　

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★An appeal for joining our network for introducing cultural wisdom                     

 

　1. On the foundation of the association for diffusing cultural wisdom

  When I proposed in my book written in the Japanese language, The main problems of Marx’s Capital (Libraire Situations, 2014) “the project for overcoming capitalism,” I had not sufficiently determined the detail of it, uncertain of what I should be going to do. But, last year, I began to think that I wanted to build, not just a think tank, but an organization for social movement, something like an association for cultural wisdom. Then, early in this year, while discussing the matter with friends of mine, I began to settle an idea of the association.

   In the first place, I’ve held a conception of the double activity, that is, the association of diffusing cultural wisdom and its network for introducing the wisdom; I manage the association on my own, and leave the network to those who agree to my idea, each of them participating in it on their own.

   Based on this plan, I will found a general corporation aggregate for diffusing cultural wisdom, using the Facebook, not only in Japanese but in English.

   On the other hand, those who agree will inaugurate the network, communicating in the Facebook as friends and interconnect their own activities on the net.

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　2. Would you apply for our manager?

  I’m suggesting that those who agree with me be free to take part in the network. In any case, I have an intention to hold a study circle for the introduction of cultural wisdom, where I’ll be invited to inaugurate the activity for it; the main theme to be presented will be chosen by someone in charge of the circle, and then the managers and I will, after having discussed it beforehand, write an outline for those subjects for which I can suggest some ideas.

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　3. What is cultural wisdom?

  I proposed an idea about cultural knowledge in 1988, which will be shown in the next section. After that year, from my point of view on cultural wisdom, I continued to study Western philosophy, formulating the point of my criticism on its assumption in these lines:

 1) To oppose the disaccord of the logic of thinking with that of being against the traditional faith in the accordance of both

 2) To raise a question over the traditional assumption of the independence of Will.

 3) Against the traditional assumption that the mediator between subjects and objects cannot be grasped in an objective form, to affirm certain mediators in some particular form that can be objectified.

   In the passages that follow, we will criticize the assumption on which science is based and show the standpoint of cultural wisdom by analyzing social relations in the same method as Marx’s approach to the value forms of commodities. From this point develop the three lines above, presenting my criticism of Western philosophy. From some ideas which will be gained on the way to criticize it — though I’m just on the way now — we will raise some questions, intending to develop social movements.

   Into focus is, after all, our own approach to what society really is, and to the way we can achieve social revolution, with the suggestion of cultural wisdom or the activity of diffusing it one of the measures for the approach.