> What is it with people on the left? So eager to put 30 million people
> out of work — the modern equivalent of the 1929–32 rise in
> unemployment — to make a political point!
Though I am looking forward to the smashup, I don't believe that my wishing for it is going to make it happen -- or that my deprecating it would make it not happen.
If it happens, it'll be the Big Boys' gift to those 30 million, not mine; I assume no responsibility for it. And the continued stable operation of the system appears certain to produce ever-increasing misery in any case, so it's not clear that I can even justly be reproached with hardness of heart.
> (Or as Edmund Wilson said after the 1929 crackup: "One couldn't
> help being exhilarated at the sudden unexpected collapse of that
> stupid gigantic fraud.")
That's part of it, of course. But I do also think it increases the likelihood of people getting so riled that they're willing to do something constructive -- perhaps after having vented their feelings first by hanging a few "investment bankers" from the nearest lamppost. (Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?)
> But what guarantee would there be that
> people would look to humane collective action in a crisis? They could
> just as easily fall in step with jackbooted xenophobes.
There are never any guarantees, are there? And no doubt some people would go for the JBXes. But I rather think that some such crisis is probably the only thing that offers any hope at all of derailing the Globalization and Immiseration Express. I don't think Clio offers us any danger-free options.