--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> 3. The adjustment of the wasteful US life style to
> live within its means is
> certainly long overdue and most likely already in
> the pipes. However, this
> adjustment will most likely take the form of
> significant but gradual price
> and cost of living increase, cuts in public
> services, stagnant wages etc.
> i.e. business as usual, only more of it. The most
> likely outcome of that
> adjustment is the rise of religiosity and popular
> fascism which will not
> escalate into a full blown form, since the elite has
> nothing to gain from
> it. Radical change? It simply will not happen
> here.
I don't share this skepticism. While there is certainly a historical precedent for this type of regression, there is in turn a precedent for revitalizations which occur after these type of backslides. If we're looking at fascism from the most particularist standpoint, we can see that fascism in Germany was militarily defeated and that the German economy recovered. The feudalist autocracies were arguably at their most despotic when they were at their collapse in Europe, and the bourgeoisie took over. If we are to go out on a limb and predict that neo-fascist regressivism will occur in the United States, why not go further and predict what will occur once those paper tigers blow away? Surely you don't think it's an unending downward spiral?
--adx
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