michael perelman wrote: > Conservatives often fault Marx for making predictions (which he > actually never made) that did not prove true. Nonetheless, in writing > about the nature of capitalism, he almost inadvertently, he clearly > laid out the logic, which made Citizens United inevitable.
Yes and no. Marx's predictions -- in both CAPITAL and the MANIFESTO -- are "all else constant" predictions. The key thing held constant in CAPITAL (especially) is the degree of worker resistance and efforts to replace capitalism. Thus, it's all about telling workers that "this is what happens if this goes on and you don't counterattack." That is, given the lack of an alternative movement counteracting capitalism's normal tendencies, Citizens United -- or something like it -- was inevitable. It's part of the capitalist accumulation of power, economic, political, and social. Of course, the capitalists could go too far, as they did on the financial level in 2007-08, causing a deeper crisis. -- Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." -- Paul Dirac _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
