>As the capitalist economy continues disconnecting from reality (i.e. useful
>production) in pursuit of the virtual production that serves to enhance
>profit-making, it becomes increasingly vulnerable to competition from a
>rational, social economy.
I say:
No need to repeat the standard lines about the pitfalls of blueprint utopias here, many of which I disagree with, given how much the imagination of the left has withered in the last 80 years. However, in the "here and now," who is the constituency for partially delinking with the larger capitalist economy ? What current social movements will the "social economy" be grounded in ? Assuming away all the other difficulties of establishing an island of ecological socialism in a sea of unecological capitalism, we can presume that the bulk of the world's surplus value-producing population will not be opting in to the "social economy" at the outset. Supposing that the "social economy" fends off ideological, political-economic, and military attack (from within as well as without), and proves its inherent superiority in delivering human happiness and ecological rationality, what happens when the surplus value- producers in the sea of capitalist madness become decisively swayed by the positive example ? Do they become victims of intensified class war and political repression ?
Just curious,
John Gulick
P.S. Is your line of argument influenced by Andre Gorz and Arran Gare ?