> While many technical aspects of Parecon are described in
> detail I found myself a bit confused when the subject of
> transition - from where we are now to where Parecon ideas
> might take us - was discussed.
Okay -- I don't spend near as much time on issues of transition or broad strategy -- I figure unless the vision is liked by a lot of people, the question of how to attain it is in some sense a bit premature...but I do spend some time...
> The present system has the force of generations of
> indoctrination, apparently limitless (from the point of view
> of an individual) wealth, military power and the claim -
> often believed - that alternatives are either pipe dreams or
> disastrous experiments.
All true, sure. But statements like this are more or less true for all existing systems, before they become past systems...
> Given the 'resilience of capital', demonstrated time and
> again through many crises, I have a difficult time imagining
> a change that doesn't involve civilizational exhaustion,
> messy revolution, an asteroid - in short, something quite
> serious, large and irresistable.
In the Soviet Union of twenty years ago the idea that there would be massive change was beyond comprehension -- deemed impossible. In the Shah;s Iran, similarly -- and likewise for many example.
Of course a change to a new type economy such as a parecon would involve a revolution -- that is what revolution is -- change in basic defining institutions...in one realm or another. But I don't know what you mean by the word messy...
Such change is the opposite of exhaustion -- more like waking up.
And hopefully we won't have to endure an asteroid.
> A gradual change from what we have now to the more democratic
> vision of Parecon seems, given the aforementioned
> entrenchment as well as the considerable propaganda
> counter-offensive elites would put up, unlikely to put it mildly.
Change has to be in part gradual - we are gradually altering and developing movements right now. Will it also involve more rapid and tumultusous times -- I certainly think so.
> But I'm willing to be convinced that I'm missing something.
I don't think you are missing anything -- I never claimed we would have a struggle free transformation from capitalism to a parecon. We have struggle every day, now -- with massive repercussions. And such struggles, as you note, will certainly become larger scale and more intense, on the road to a new economy.