Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> uvj at vsnl.com wrote:
>
> >Why the US doesn't have a strong Left or social-democratic tradition?
>
> Well we sorta had one once but it's gone. Short answer: immigration
> in waves led to self-definition by ethnicity rather than class;
> slavery led to a self-definition by race rather than class;
> immigration self-selects a bunch of strivers; vicious capitalist
> class with a retrograde ideology and strong taste for force; purges,
> raids, repression (including private repression - blacklisting etc);
> culture of individualism, self-improvement, self-reliance, and
> competition; role of highly masculinized imperialism in creating a
> culture and practice of violence; periodic waves of orchestrated
> panics (Germans, Russians, Muslims); etc.
>
This is probably about as good as can be had in the close-to-sound-bite length and top-of-the-head writing of maillist exchanges, but it is quite a jumble. That is, I wouldn't disagree, & I wouldn't pretend to do better, but I still don't like it very well.
Consider just one item: "vicious capitalist class with a retrograde ideology and strong taste for force." Yes, but that simply names what seems to call for explanation. _Why_ is the u.s. capitalist class so vicious, and how does it compare with (say) the viciousness of the german capitalists in the 1920s/30s? How is the ideology more retrograde than that of the Japanese or British capitalist classes? And what are the conditions or historical events that led (and lead) to the formation (and continual reformation) of that ideology? Ideologies don't exactly fall from the sky or burst full-blown from the mind of Zeus. Why, with the left even at is strongest relatively weak did the u.s. capitalist class develop its "strong tase for force"?
What writers (what books and articles) have come closest to explaining the development of this ideology and this "taste" in the u.s.ruling class? (The first Marshall Field was the leader of the pack in calling for the blood of the Haymarket defendants. Is that relevant? Where did this bloodthirstiness on the part of Chicago merchants come from?)
Carrol