[lbo-talk] Left - Right 30 Year Itch

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Oct 4 13:34:05 PDT 2007


Ismail:

anyway, a student came to me after class and said that he had attended a lecture by some bloke who suggested that we may be heading for/be at the end of a 30 year swing to the right.... the point was this: 1968 was when the swing to the right started, and what uncle george, uncle dick and auntie connie have done is precipitate a swing (back) to the left. i found this quite an intriguing thesis, suggested that we have coffee and discuss it further.

[WS:] It looks like the old trite "pendulum" argument - basically wishful thinking that lacks any convincing causal element. What exactly causes these swings? If this is a manufactured rather than quasi-natural phenomenon (as the pendulum theory implies), then the swing to the right was clearly caused by the growing power of business (globalization, fall of the USSR etc.). However, I do not see any material base that would cause a swing to the left today? Perhaps you may ask that question over coffee.

Wojtek



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list