>> > Decadence, maybe, but desperation? What is desperate about the
>>bourgeoisie?
>> > Everything is going their way. They've crushed their rival of 75 years,
>> > socialism is near-dead as a political force, profits are high in the U.S.
>> > (and getting better in Europe), and money is ruling just about all aspects
>> > of social life. That doesn't sound desperate to me.
>
>
>Doug, I don't know what is the point of this sentence-on-duty which
>you roll out whenever anyone hints that capitalism might have a problem
>or two. Maybe you think this is gritty realism, but from here it looks
>more like defeatism -- or the kind of self-absorption which only the
>US left seems capable of these days. Presumably when/if Wall St crashes,
>you will finally announce ex cathedra that, oh well, yes, the thing
>now has suffered major mechanical breakdown. For the two-thirds of
>humankind already ground under heel, however, such circumspection about
>facing an obvous historical reality must be deeply unimpressive.
The point is a description of reality as I see it. It may change, but the left has declared capitalism to be in its death agony for about the last 12 decades, and the old beast keeps rising to new triumphs. The two-thirds of humankind ground under its heel isn't a sign of things not working well - it's exactly how it's supposed to be. If that two-thirds were in outright rebellion, joined by the toilers of the imperialist countries, then it would not be working well.
Doug