This came out while I was off traveling, so most of you have no doubt already seen it. I place it here simply because I think it's really quite good and I'm in the midst of meeting a deadline so don't have much time for a longer blog.
I pretty much hate it when Marxists make sense. All those years growing up among the bourgeoisie have ruined me, I fear. But I tend to pay attention to them because they're very good at noticing that there is a problem. This video is an excellent description of the problem. I was relieved that no (Marxist) solution was offered so that I could entirely agree that more informed, broader, more open discourse is needed as well as new perspectives.
I had to reduce the size to fit it on my blog page. If you view it on youtube you'll be able to read the writing. Here's the link
Hat tip, rjs.
"I pretty much hate it when Marxists make sense."
This is not an attitude that any skeptic and honest seeker after the truth should have, and not one that any skeptic should ever admit to.
I'm a revolutionary communist, and I don't ever "hate it" when liberal capitalists such as yourself make sense, even concerning the flaws of revolutionary communism. I'm grateful for the insight, and if you really are correct, it's dumb to spend a single instant getting over some "hatred" and incorporating and responding to legitimate criticism.
I have no allegiance to any ideology other than the absolute and unconditional love of the truth. I happen to be a revolutionary communist only because I presently believe the fundamentals of revolutionary communism to be more truthful, but if I were convinced otherwise, I would change my conclusions without the slightest emotional difficulty.
Posted by: The Barefoot Bum | 07/11/2010 at 10:03 AM
In my beady-eyed view there's a tendency to put the cart before the horse in discussions of the failures of capitalism. Try it this way: capitalism is a way of organizing an economy to expand industrial production. The capitalist system, in other words, is a solution to a problem. A rough and harsh solution, to be sure. But it emerges from and responds to physical and historical constraints. So what happens when industrial production is expanded as far as possible, and beyond a sustainable level? One answer, so far, has been technical change. Having built a coal-fueled, rail economy, you tear most of it down & build an oil-fueled highway economy. They you manufacture computers, build the internet, and wire the world. Then...what then? Eventually, probably, a synthesis of industrial and craft production, but meantime, I think, you shuffle the pieces around. Through finance, in other words, people start playing games of accumulation.
I don't think capitalism is very good at dealing with a mature economy, with a situation of stability. It's a system designed for the development of industrial economies, and in the developed world, that process seems to be coming to an end.
Posted by: The Raven | 07/12/2010 at 02:11 AM