>From lbo-talk
[lbo-talk] Krugman: "The question then is why."
Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Jul 11 08:13:54 PDT 2011
On Jul 10, 2011, at 10:59 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> I was hanging out with a friend from Paris. He mentioned that the hard
right in France is growing stronger and more numerous, and that it is now
25% of the electorate. And I said, why, why is there no reciprocal
consolidation and growth on the left. His reply was interesting and I think
very close to the mark. He said that what everyone is being told is that
there's not enough to go around, that we live in a world of increasing
scarcity and that the general population of the West is convinced that
sharing with the developing world is not feasable, and that if it were, it
would certainly mean less for the rest of us. So the swing to the right is a
vote for that party which looks more consistent and more willing to fight
the encroaching hoards.
>
> This made a lot of sense to me. And maybe I'm the only one on the block
who didn't see it, or maybe I just naively think that the feeling of human
brotherhood is stronger than it actually is. Anyway. I had an ah ha moment,
and I'm passing it on.
This is related to the argument I've been making for a long time - that
crises are not good for the left, since they make people more defensive,
insular, competitive, and focused on survival. Climate change is going to
add a whole new dimension to this.
Doug
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2011/2011-July/007554.html
======
If Doug is correct here, and I think he is, then leftists hoping for
working-class resistance should probably spend less time seeming to
celebrate bad times, as though they proved something.
An economic crisis, no matter how disastrous, is NOT a crisis of
capitalism. On the contrary, the present crisis or cluster of crises can be
seen as exhibiting the _health_ of capitalism.
Carrol
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