Doug Henwood wrote, >I had more than a few minutes I could sit here and type three or four total >disaster scenarios right off the top of my head, ranging from a run on the >dollar to a Brazilian default to ecological disaster causing flooding and >crop failures on a massive scale. I think the left has been seriously >damaged over the years by forecasting 45 of the last 1 deflationary crises, >and by assuming that crisis will do lots of political work for us. Why are you telling ME this, Doug? I've spent the last 20 years studying and criticizing apocalyptic narrative. I don't assume crisis will do any political work for us at all. In fact, I assume that without an effective response from the left, crises tend to concentrate political power in the hands of those who already have too much of it. The trouble with failed doomsday prophecies is not only that they discredit the aspiring prophets and their allies, they also give credence to a counter-myth of normal progress that has no substance of its own. Pangloss and Cassandra are twin phantoms that take sustenance from each other's non-being. Kind of like Republicans and Democrats. The analysis of crisis tendencies -- not the prophecy of doom -- is one feature of a "compelling critique of capitalism in its expansionary mode". If one insists on equating all conjunctural analysis with apocalypticism, then there's not much room left for critique. It's not a compelling critique to say, as you did in your reply to Louis, that "capitalism in 1998 has almost no progressive aspects anymore". Frankly, that's what I'd call an apocalyptic pronouncement. I'll go out on a limb and say that capitalism in 1998 has some extraordinary progressive aspects left in it. The consternation of finance ministers, central bankers and speculators is NOT about the total exhaustion of economic prospects, but about the increasing difficulty of manouevering between "too much" and too widely-shared prosperity, which they don't want for political reasons, and an economic collapse, which they don't want period. Instead of forecasting 45 of the last 1 deflationary crises, Herbert Marcuse predicted an ongoing emancipatory threat: "Automation threatens to render possible the reversal of the relation between free time and working time on which the established civilization rests: the possibility of working time becoming marginal, and free time becoming full time. The result would be a radical transvaluation of values, and a mode of existence incompatible with the traditional culture. ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY IS IN PERMANENT MOBILIZATION AGAINST THIS POSSIBILITY [emphasis added]." How's that for a "total disaster scenario", Doug? Regards, Tom Walker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
