Marvin Gandall wrote: > Matthjis alluded to China, Russia, India, and Japan in arguing that > anti-imperialist nations can become imperialist, which in theory is > incontestible. Jim said that made sense to him and added Vietnam and > Cambodia to the mix. > > So, to be clear, which if any of these countries would either of both of you > today describe as "imperialist"? What defines them as such in > contradistinction to the others, and when did they cross that threshold?
To my mind, and following a tradition going back to Lenin, Luxembourg, Bukharin, and others, "imperialism" does not refer to a type of policy (attacking other countries, etc.) Instead, it refers to an international social system, currently involving a kind of capitalism which is structured among dominant (core) and dominated (periphery) areas.[*] The dominant countries have the opportunity to accumulate power, widening and deepening their domination at the expense of the dominated. Of course, the dominant powers can "blow it," becoming decadent, allowing slightly-reformed frat-boy drunkards/coke-heads and the like to run their policies, etc., etc., so that they don't realize the benefit of accumulating power and may even suffer from downward mobility. In addition, the dominated countries can sometimes use any wiggle-room they've got to rise in the hierarchy (mobilizing nationalism, etc.) But the structure of domination in the system is real. Are Russia, India, Japan, Vietnam, or Cambodia "imperialist" countries? they'd have to be firmly located in the dominant fraction. I don't think any of these except Japan fits. (Also, the Cambodia that attacked Vietnam is now completely different. It's allied with Vietnam, I believe.) [*] There are also non-capitalist imperialisms, of course, such as ancient Rome or the late USSR. But currently, the only imperialism is capitalist. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
