>there's a distinct sense of repetition there, Doug. but how about
>adding in this: the 1929 depression signaled the beginning of the
>economic collapse of Britain as the global power, WW2 ushered in the
>handover the thee US. there too, the shift in debt was crucial, as
>Dennis has been pointing out is the case here.
Yes. But the U.S. boomed during the 1920s as the rest of the world slumped along - not unlike the 1990s. Japan isn't acting like the hegemon in chrysalis right now, and the EU isn't either. Those things could change, of course, but the parallels are strained.
>do anyone really think that US hegemony is the same thing as
>capitalist hegemony, in the sense that if the former falls the latter
>does also? - that's a serious question, btw.
They're not equal, but I think any weakening of U.S. hegemony could represent a threat to capitalist hegemony. There's never been a hegemon like the U.S., has there? What previous imperium could frustrate revolutions in scores of countries, wreck foreign capitals without incurring significant casualties, and dominate global popular culture so completely?
But, the bubble-ish aspects of the U.S. economy make me wonder if we've reached some bizarre extreme of the Pox Americana.
>and, maybe Zizek is right: anti-americanism in the world is today
>not, as we might hope, a populist code for anti-capitalism, but rather
>a popular form of national chauvinism and racism that no longer
>automatically translates into anti-capitalism.
I think he's very persuasive that these forms of anti-Americanism, "monsters" like Saddam & Milosevic, are simply the other side of the neoliberal coin. So they could hardly be anti-capitalist, being products of the universalization of market relations - symptoms of the Polanyi-ish social disintegration that is the side effect of Ricardian economics. Yugoslavia attracts attention because it's in Europe - but violent disintegration afflicts lots of Africa now, not, of course, that important people care. I think Zizek is also right that this kind of war is the product of a depoliticization of post-Cold War universal market "civilization," so almost by definition it can't be anti-capitalist. It's just anti-neighbor.
>(who is not a yank, and thankful for having been spared any of the
>craziness that this would induce.)
If you forget how much damage the U.S. does, it's almost entertaining.
Doug