Hamilton

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Wed Aug 22 08:31:37 PDT 2001


Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> [bounced bec of an attachment - by the way, my pal Dan Lazare,
> Marxist critic of the U.S. constitutional system, is a Hamilton fan
> who hates Jefferson]
> > [clip]
> Whatever happened to the strain of leftism that sees
> capitalism as an improvement on what existed before,
> and as a nessessary precursor to socialism?
>

There are two propositions here, which have no necessary connection:

1. Capitalism was an improvement over pre-capitalist regimes

2. Capitalism was/is a necessary precursor of socialism.

I don't know any basis, except perhaps a religious belief in the Doctrine of Progress, for the first proposition. The second proposition is about as certain as any historical proposition can be. (Note: I'm not affirming the opposite of [1], for that would be equally metaphysical.)

Carrol



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