>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 01/13/00 03:06PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:
>That is a great irony of the U.S. dictatorship.
It's not a dictatorship. That's too simple. It's a lot more complicated than that. One of the many problems with "conspiracy" is that it effaces all those complexities.
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CB: True questions: Why do you think dictatorship and "conspiracy" are simpler than open and obvious ?
Why do you think the U.S. and capitalism cannot be a contradictory combination of dicatatorship and open system ?
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Though freedom of expression is hardly limitless, we have no small amount of liberty to say what we want. Ditto freedom of organization. We can vote. We can find out what the hell is going on. Yet the ruling class continues to rule. In extreme moments they resort to coercion and force, but not in "normal" times. You don't have to believe me - ask a good Red like Gramsci.
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CB: The most complex ( not simple) model would be if it was on its face free and democratic, but at the same time contradictorily a dictatorship and not free. It is this contradictory combination that is the more complex.
Pretty sure Gramsci would agree with me in this argument. There is both a war of position and _____. There is both legitimation ( open) and brutal dictatorial force ( Gramsci wrote and died in a fascist prison; he would be the last one to deny that there was some conspiracy involved in his being thrown out of the Italian legislature and into prison; he had to write all of his most famous work in code, for goodness sake. No plots ?!)
You are correct that capitalism is complex, but my model is more complex than yours. The complexity of the U.S system is exactly that it is contradictorily open and closed at the same time.
In fact, this is a reflection of the "genius" of bourgeois rule. All previous ruling classes were much more open about their dictatorship. Kings and lords marched around flaunting their tyranny, and exercising it continuously. Notice how most of the big bourgeoisie are rather anonymous, PRIVATE even. The bourgeoisie have invented limited democracy backed up by hidden and intermittent tyranny as the best way to placate the masses, the ultimate iron fist in the velvet glove. I call it the bourgeois finesse.
CB