[lbo-talk] Alex Cockburn on India: wrong? (was, U.N. seeks aid...)

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 10 10:39:51 PDT 2005


Ulhas:

I am simply questioning the popular Leftwing idea that capitalist development in the "Third World"

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Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't believe this idea is especially popular now.

Of course, there are still those who engage, in a romantic way, with so-called "third world" societies and become agitated when they learn that people in Kenya, Vietnam, Siberia and Bombay share a love of cell phones, laptops and pop music (because, this supposed 'flattening' means the death of what, for them, the Western lover of 'exotica', is the essential thing about wherever they're visiting).

But I think such sentiments are the rarely seen legacy of a mid to late 20th century leftward sensibility -- an artifact of the late 1960s and 1970s.

These days, no one seems to question the ability of any place (except for African nations...and even that's starting to change it appears) to be fully integrated into the global grid.

So Ulhas, I think you're battling phantoms here; ghosts of an earlier left that may have presented a more or less coherent view regarding "third world development".

Perhaps you're thinking of Monthly Review essays from decades ago?

This is a guess and offered as an example...not a knock against the very fine MR.

.d.

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http://monroelab.net/ <<<<<>>>>> "Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends"...Momus



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