> As I said time and again, one of my goals is to make people re-think their
> position and develop a coherent left wing philosophy that would offer an
> attractive alternative to the neo-liberal mantra (George Lakoff had some
> great ideals in that respect). That is why I am trying to challenge the
> positions that I see as taken for granted in these circles, yet flat dead
> with the rest of the population. If you think it sounds snotty, sorry,
> but
> mindless populism of the New Deal and Progressive eras is one of those
> things that I think gotta go - and for a simple reason, the left will
> never
> out-populist the right.
>
> So to be on a more positive side, what I would like to see is less
> bitching
> about Bush, corporate criminals, cops beating up hoodlums, the dire
> straits
> of the entertainment industry and the plight of various freaks, less
> escapism into utopia - and more about plan how to organize a just society,
> and how to run a complex economy without a race to the bottom. Like
> central
> planning - only better.
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Sweeping statements, Wojtek.
1. In what way do you think the New Deal was "mindlessly populist"? I've always considered it a) a dramatic example of large numbers of working people thinking and acting politically in pursuit of their interests in a way - quite the opposite of "mindless" - that we haven't seen since and b) an equally class conscious response by the sophisticated wing of the bourgeoisie recognizing that capitalism's survival depended on an historic compromise with the masses involving the restoration of mass purchasing power to resucitate the economy and contain the social protest. It's not yet clear how far the unravelling of this arrangement will proceed.
2. Bitching isn't productive, I agree, but good luck to you and others so inclined to try and "plan how to organize a just society, and how to run a complex economy without a race to the bottom. Like central planning - only better." Ironic you counterpose this pursuit to "escapism into utopia" because that is how your formulation strikes me. My sense is that reforms and revolutions are invariably pragmatic deviations from a "plan" forced by necessity, a process described best by Mao or Chou as "crossing the river by feeling for the stones".