> Really? Marx recognised that N.America might offer greater potential
than
> Europe for revolution, because of its superior communications
technology.
> And I think you fail to recognise the "concentration" created by
> ever-improving communications technology. e.g. We couldn't even have
these
> debates 20 years ago.
The left version of the "new economy", huh?
But let me observe that neither you and people show share your faith in the US, nor I and those who remain skeptical have no way of proving their relative points. I thus propose the following: let's talk (if we still can) in about 10 years from now. If the US is closer to a revolution or even the old fashioned social democracy than it is today, I buy you a beer. If, otoh, the US is closer to a third-world style plutocracy with most public services already privatized or about to be privatized - you buy me a beer. I suggest you save some Euros for that occasion because it is possible that I will be on the other side of the pond by then, and buying a pint there might cost you mucho dollaros (I will keep 5 bucks when I leave too).
Another thought. I am an atheist, but one problem with atheism is that it does not offer much hope in the face of death. I know that one day I will kick the bucket, and that will be the end of it - no afterthoughts, no feelings or sensations of any kind, nothing - so there is nothing to regret or be afraid of. But that is hardly a hope. People need hope, even if false one, for emotional comfort.
Most religions provide such hope by inventing an afterlife and its illusory pleasures. But there is a different approach possible, hinted inter alia by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal - death as avoidance of greater misery than that found in one's lifetime, instead of a gate to an "afterlife" better than one's actual life. I am better off dying than living, because I avoid greater misery that is likely to ensue if I lived longer. Of course, that kind of comfort hinges on the assumption that such greater misery is imminent.
The existence of the United States can be useful in providing such comfort. If the social order created in the United States is to take over the world, life is not worth living when that happens. The only way out of this hell forged in the United States is death, provided it is peaceful and painless.
Wojtek