[lbo-talk] Classless society [was: Dean Baker on immigration

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>>>
>>>... hoping to eradicate these divisions and inequalities is unrealistic,
>>>utopian and naïve.
>>
>>Hoping to eradicate these divisions and inequalities may be unrealistic, 
>>utopian and naïve, but I would say it is also necessary.  My premise is 
>>that offered by the philosopher Peggy Lee:  "Is that all there is?"
>
>It might be impossible to "eradicate" class divisions, but we sure could 
>reduce them. Lively unions, civilized welfare states, and quality public 
>education would take us pretty far down that road.

Yes, but right now we're just standing by the road like the characters in 
"Waiting for Godot" -- what we're waiting for in this state of capitalist 
statis is anyone's guess.  In college I remember some professor solemnly 
informing me that what was logically wrong with proposed utopias was the 
stagnancy of the societies envisioned.  But that rap seems to me especially 
applicable to capitalism itself, whose supposed mutability and dynamism are 
basically illusory.  IMO, capitalism is mere glorified entropy, a way of 
enshrining social relationships that are instrinsically primitive and 
unfair.

I think humankind has both a moral and an intellectual obligation to try to 
evolve beyond capitalism.  How tedious to imagine an endless future like the 
present.

Carl