"J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote:
>
> [clip]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad DeLong" <jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu>
>
> > Wasn't the pre-WWI version of imperialism supposed to be the "highest
> > stage" of capitalism?
>
There is some dispute over translation: It could be translated not "highest" but "latest" stage. And there is some evidence in the text for this interpretation. He does acknowledge the _possibility_ of Kautsky's "super-imperialism," only arguing that the current imperialism was not such.
It's revolutionary commonsense to predict great things in the near future: If a good thing predicted doesn't happen, there is no loss. If a good thing happens and one is unprepared, it is a disaster. (Of course this principle of commonsense does not hold for those individualists who are absolutely terrified at ever being wrong, and hence retreat to qualifications, irony, detachment, etc..)
Carrol