[lbo-talk] Class Analysis of the Empire?

[snit snat]

At 05:43 PM 2/7/2005, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>In my opinion, all three ideas above should be criticized and rejected, 
>>but criticisms of the empire (as well as criticisms of Israel) are often 
>>couched in moral terms that partake of one or more of them.  For the last 
>>several years, we have seen outpourings of books and articles critical of 
>>US imperialism (and Israel), but class analyses of the empire, especially 
>>ones that clarify American workers' positions in it (or ones that clarify 
>>Jewish workers' positions in Israel), are hard to come by, perhaps 
>>because of the waning of Marxism.  That's a big problem we need to rectify.
>
>I couldn't agree more. So how do we start? I'd really love a rigorous 
>analysis of just how much imperialism contributes to the U.S. standard of 
>living today, but I don't know of any. Any ideas?
>
>Doug

Isn't it a moot point? When I read 1]., I said, "Yeah, so? It's true." But 
then I read that Yoshie wanted crits of that position. eh?

Well, as I recall, Yoshie and others have frequently argued that it would 
be better to focus imperialism's negative effects. I could be wrong in my 
characterization, though, and I"m sure Yoshie will correct me. But, I think 
she's made similar points about racism and sexism, arguing against analyses 
that show how whites benefit from racism and males benefit from gender 
oppression. This is not to say that they don't, but taken all together, you 
could also show how what appears to be advantageous, is really not. The 
example works best with gender oppression.

You can say that men benefit, as a group: privilege, higher wages, etc. 
etc. But that's too narrow, because it doesn't consider the ways men suffer 
under the current system: shorter life spans, higher stress levels, etc. 
etc. I'm sure there's more.

Anyway, I just recall a HYOOOOOOOOOGE debate about this issue because, I 
think, Yoshie and others took the same tack re: racism -- causing a bit of 
controversy on the list.

k

"We live under the Confederacy.
We're a podunk bunch of swaggering
pious hicks."

                --Bruce Sterling