>
> CB: Doesn't have to be a catastrophe, just a
depression.
> If the U.S.standard
> of living drops for some years, there will be
resentment
> because of the
> memory of SUVism, resentment at a palpable drop.
This
> will be fertile ground
> for socialist ideas.
>
>
I still don't understand why leftists put this out as a theory of how Marxism will be revived. Depressions generally mean higher competition for jobs, a backlash against immigrants and minorities, weakened political power of the working class, and obviously a higher amount of power from the ruling elites.
******************
Social ownership of the productive apparatus of the USA under democratic control would be a boon to the standard of living of 90% of the population. This proposition can be made in both the best and worst of times dominated by Capital.
The question goes back to the one Zizek raised about the willful embrace of ignorance by the vast majority.
What makes people stop going about the normality of selling their time and skills to produce commodities for profit and to begin to gather in the streets to demand this or that?
We just saw one example with the war. When *sharp* changes like this happen, the level of existential angst increases. Existential angst begins to rise above the drone of the legitimation machine's amplified voices and the ears become more receptive to the possibilty, indeed, the need for change.
My two-cents, Mike B)
===== "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
Benjamin Franklin
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/philosophicalcreativity/
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com