Thanks for elaborating. At first blush my only disagreement is that I don’t think I (or Graeber) “redefined” benevolence at all, and it seems to me a not terrible word to describe the reciprocal trust relationship needed to facilitate the use of debt. I don’t think the larger point you’re making about his take on Smith turns on his use of that word.
As I said, I haven’t read the book, and so I’ll hold off on saying much more. I really expect this to be a book where the author is wrong in some interesting ways, rather than batshit crazy. So many mainstream people get Adam Smith wrong, so the anarchist anthropologist getting it wrong isn’t a complete dealbreaker.
> I don’t think I (or Graeber) “redefined” benevolence at all, and it seems to me a not terrible word to describe the reciprocal trust relationship needed to facilitate the use of debt.
That probably makes banks the most benevolent entities on the planet.
As I said, I haven’t read the book, and so I’ll hold off on saying much more. I really expect this to be a book where the author is wrong in some interesting ways, rather than batshit crazy. So many mainstream people get Adam Smith wrong, so the anarchist anthropologist getting it wrong isn’t a complete dealbreaker.