11.30.11
The fate of capitalism
http://darwiniana.com/2011/11/30/ows-and-capitalism/
This perspective on the OWS and capitalism is useful, but surely requires a caution. This may well be correct: the center of gravity of the movement, as noted here several times, hovers closer to ‘social democratic activism’ than to socialism. But let me note at once that this situation, echoing the Thirties, and the FDR mood, requires, as the Thirties did, a dialectical howler in the wings to drive the middle: the Communists were very powerful and a crucial component in the success, ironically, of the New Deal. Without that far left, the elites are not afraid of simple protest. Like Zuccoti Park, they will laugh in your face, and proceed toward destruction of protest.
So the OWS should be wary here: they must create their own ‘dialectical complement’, which could take the form of simple debate the future of capitalism in the context of ecological disaster and climage warming. The question of capitalism has to remain open. The social democratic route speaks for itself: it has done a lot of good, but ended in collapse, as socialists predicted. Then again, if we look at the social democratic capitalism in a country like Germany or the Scandinavian countries we see a potential that tempts even a socialist to the general compromise the OWS is being led to by the coopting forces trying to finish them off. I think, however, this kind of ‘Scandinavian’ legacy is a real option for the American system, but rethought and readapted to circumstance. But I fear this system is so hard-wired now by troglodytes who are degenerated social darwinists that to consider compromise will backfire. So we must begin to qualify the term ‘capitalism’.
I don’t speak for the OWS, but I will speak for myself: I think we are reaching the end of the line for ‘capitalism’ as we know it now. We should at the very least out-FDR the legacy of FDR to create a new socialist/capitalist hybrid.
Best of luck. The American public has been reduced to a kind of Ayn Rand idiocy from which there seems no recovery. There the OWS would do itself and the public a disservice with facile compromise.
Time is running out, and the reign of ‘capitalism as usual’ is doomed. That’s not the end of capitalism, necessarily. But the prospect of a rightwing still unable to face the reality of ecological disaster makes it necessary to consider the harsh route beyond the capitalist system now dominant. The point of the social democrtatic option was that if you are intelligent about capitalism and its limits, it can be viable. But if we look at the American right now, we have to wonder. These people are almost insane monomaniacs, and the irony is that capitalism itself can’t function in the hands of the demented.
Jake said,
December 5, 2011 at 1:43 am
The failure of past market-socialist theories is that they fetishized the consumer goods and services market and debated too much about the capital market, all the while ignoring how to fully socialize the labour market.
Mentioning the Scandinavian model on capital markets would be incomplete without mentioning Rudolf Meidner’s radicalized public policy stances in the late 70s and early 80s.
reece sullivan said,
December 5, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Concerning reaching the end of capitalism . . . We’re reaching the end of growth. Energy and food resources are dwindling, and without oil in abundant supply, we can’t have endless growth.
This is gonna be a major jolt to the system.