Capital has civilized North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. That's a small patch of the earth, though, within which much of capital circulates. This fact is often held up by proponents of economism as "evidence" of obsolescence of imperialism. One might as well say, however, that capital's inability to civilize the rest of the world is the sign of its limit: "The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along with, and under it. Centralization of the means of production and socialization of labor at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument" (<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm>). Overcapacity and worldwide waves of deflation are finally threatening to capsize the USA, the consumer of last resort already laden with debt (Cf. Brad De Long, "America's Date with Deflation?" _Financial Times_ 21 August 2002, <http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/000533.html>; James Devine on "the Three Bears," <http://clawww.lmu.edu/faculty/jdevine/talks/Goldilocks.html>). We need to analyze the current and future effects of Bush's endless war on the USA and the rest of the world in this context, while trying to build our own capacity to rise up to the challenge.
socialism or barbarism, -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>