ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there are a number of problems with the non-dialectical models constructed by contemporary social theorists on industrial capitalism. Industrial capital operates through the two additional circuits of financial capital and commercial capital. A common device employed by some informational and late-modern theorists is the manner by which feudal societies are contrasted to modern societies, or when an industrial stage is distinguished from an informational stage. A capitalist owns any surplus produced because he or she owns the means of production and labour power exactly in his or her capacity as a capitalist. Like many social theorists, Van Dijk employs the utterance mass to describe industrial societies as being highly centralised by the state and other command points, as being bureaucratic, as having high levels of density and inclusiveness, as having broadcast mass media. According to Bernard Stiegler, Karl Marx was primarily concerned with the emergence of industrial capitalism.
