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> > > Well, do we expect the bourgeois ideologists, professional flacks, > recuperators, to do anything else? Do we expect them to grasp even the > depth of the economic disruption? . > Yes, but, what about public perception of the crisis... > If you want to know if this is a crisis OF rather IN capitalism, we have to > look at where the bourgeoisie do all their dirty work-- and that's in the > markets. Huh, I thought it was in the hidden abode of production where they did all of their dirty work; the market being merely a political fiction to obfuscate exploitation. Yes, production is still down, and will probably stay down until a whole hella lot more capital is destroyed, but productivity is way up. > So... > > 1. bank lending continues to decline in both Europe and the US > 2. China has reinflated its economy with nitromethane-- lending > approximately 3X more in the first 10 months of 09 than it did in the > similar period of 08-- and of course is worried about the low interest > rates > in the US creating an asset bubble. > 3. The next round of panic is just about to begin. You say hello, and I > say > Dubai. Watch what happens Monday, Monday can't trust that day. The return > flight to safety has just begun. > True dat. However, look at how people are caring on as if nothing was going on. Maybe the material contradictions in the economy will ultimately determine the outcome but it also rests on the capacity of people to understand these and make the political connections. It is not automatic, but must be constructed. We cannot simply hope things get worse and assume this will lead us to some sort of break through, we must create the break through. > > IMO the determining factor is not if right now the working class has broken > through the ideolgical shell. The determining factors are if capitalist > accumulation been restored, and restored on solid footings, and if not yet, > then what will it take to restore expanded capitalist accumulation? > What will it take: further supine reactions from workers who are individualizing the pressures placed on them by the crisis and not making the political connections. This and the destruction of capital necessary to restart a cycle of expanded reproduction. The decisive factor is political, not economic, or better, a combination of economic and political factors. <Has the ideology of "neo-liberalism" been disrupted, cracked, shaken? Of <course it has. Remember Greenspan's testimony in Congress... You are still conceiving of Neoliberalism as an ideology instead of as a class project, a class offensive which must be judged on its actual movement not its ideology. As long as the state continues to act to organize and aid the ruling class and to disorganize the working class (as opposed to aiding or shielding the working class vis a vis the ruling class as during the post-war compromise) it is neoliberalism. <I would expect that such a crack in the ideology would produce an even more <reactionary, vicious response than the usual viciousness of our Hobbesian <Leviathan politicians; an even more frenzied attack on unions, women, <immigrants. And it has. Again, is it best to conceive of this as arising out of cracks in the ideology or as a structural response and political class offensive. They actually think they can overcome the crisis by intensifying the class offensive because they have such a large command of the tools of the state and the ideological apparatuses. I am not so sure they are wrong. <I would expect that after having the snot kicked out of it for 36 years, and <losing jobs at these rates, workers in the US, UK in particular would be a <little slow off the mark, but again we are in the early stages, and I do not <see anyway capital can restore accumulation without incinerating record <tonnage and value of fixed assets. But the latter does not automatically lead to the former being overcome. We cannot merely interpret the political economic situation, the point is to change it. Brad ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
