Am I the only one who finds these "crises of capitalism" theses a bunch of hokum? Every little development in the world economy is a "crisis of capitalism."
When have leftists NOT said that "capitalism is in crisis" When have they not predicted that the U.S. empire is about to collapse from its "internal contradictions"? When have they ever been right? Does Monthly Review publish articles about anything else?
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Of course you're right to criticize a belief in the imminent collapse of capitalism (and of the US).
I don't know if capitalism is in a terminal crisis (or a crisis at all). Perhaps, like the systems that preceded it, it will lumber along until some unlooked for series of changes renders it powerless. Even the sun will go nova and disappear one day. Everything ends, so we know that our 'way of life' has an expiration date. When? I don't know and won't pretend.
But the 'crisis of capitalism' thesis isn't, as far as I can tell, the focus of this particular Wallerstein essay. Oh, it's mentioned as an aisde that he won't go into (and therefore forms the ideological backbone), but it's not the star of the show.
The runaway nature of the many crises the US finds itself facing is the focus. No one is in control of these events, that is the central idea. Yes, the US's preponderance of force and large economy gives it the ability to nudge events in one direction or the other, but once things are moving they can go down new and wholly unexpected paths.
I find this acknowledgement of the wild nature of reality somewhat refreshing. Scientists who study nature deeply - from physicists to climatologists - talk like this all the time.
It's rare (at least in my experience) to hear a political commentator say anything remotely like it.
DRM
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