Carrol Cox wrote: > Come on. Both of you know what capitalism is. Both of you know the > history, the defeats, the famines, the deaths from overwork, the > hundreds of millions (over time billions) of peaaants ground down, the > endless Kill All, Burn All, Loot All campaigns of pacification, the > 50-hour or longer work weeks of skilled workers in the factories of the > "Golden Age" of capitalism, the broken lives from corporate mergers. The > list is endless. And unlike those billions you are among the supremely > fortunate who can NAME the source of it all. > > What is different about the present to generate such gloom?
I know what _abstract_ capitalism is, but I also know that there are different _concrete_ forms of capitalism. There's the kind of capitalism which currently prevails, in which a small minority uses its power to make itself even more powerful even if it leads to global disaster, which non-elite folks will most likely end up paying for. There's also the kind where countervailing powers push capitalism to be more collectively rational (stated as a formula, that's social democracy). The transition from the latter to the former -- which we've "enjoyed" for the last 30 years or so -- is enough to create deep psychological gloom. That gloom reflects the shrinkage of the countervailing powers.... "NAME" the source of it all? capitalism plus weak resistance to capitalism. -- 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
