Now Playing: Abram de Swaan on Dominance of English

Abram de Swaan on Dominance of English
Abram de Swaan is a Dutch sociologist who studies the politics of language. He tells Steve Paulson that English is the worldwide language of business and diplomacy, though many wish it weren’t.

Interviewer:
Steve Paulson Abram de Swaan is a Dutch sociologist who studies the politics of language. He tells Steve Paulson that English is the worldwide language of business and diplomacy, though many wish it weren’t.

Bankers & Woes

Marxism proved to be a practical failure when the communist empire collapsed twenty years ago. The experiment had lasted some odd 70 years. The crucial dogma was that a society needs a strong state only and can do without markets. The fall of the USSR also meant large parts of their old elite vanished. Though one may doubt whether the new one of Prime minister Wladimir Putin and his friends is that much better. The counter experiment of the capitalist societies over the last 40 years has been what Swaan coined “marketism”: to be prosperous and happy a society needs free markets only. The invisible hand revisited. Business, boards and ceo’s should be left alone by governments and others. It’s philosophy strongly opposes rules, regulations and government interventions. Every activity, each institution, any service should be, and largely have been, liberalized, privatised and deregulated.