Lenin's Tomb wrote:
>
> On 10/9/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > If
> > it means that those movements have in some sense made things worse by
> > legitimating capitalism or some such, I'd have to say "horseshit."
> >
>
> Well, if you're going to pull rank by being all grown up about it...
The qualifier "in some sense" ought to bear more weight than Doug seems to give it.
I don't know how many times Yoshie, LT, others have to repeat that the achievements of the '60s were a good thing before others will refrain from really stupid mischaracterizations of both. Of course they were a good thing -- AND OF COURSE THEY STRENGTHENED CAPITALISM, as all the gains of the working class for 200+ years have done. And once one can peak around the corner of the status, now, of the higher strata of 'first-world' working classes, it ought to be pretty obvious that that strengthening of capitalism is _also_ leading to increasing horror. From both Bloomington IL and Manhattan (for those of us with even a semi-decent income) the world looks much better than it did 50 years ago, thanks in great part to the achievements of the '60s (and to our negative achievements also -- like perhaps saving the world with the November Moratorium in 1969). But the world as a whole is _not_ better off. It is much worse off, and the outlook for improvement is fucking dim, precisely because u.s. capitalism is so fucking strong.
I think Doug in the past has made a lot of fuss about the ability to hold two or more ideas in mind at one time. Can he really be so obtuse as not to recognize that Yoshie and others really do have that capacity also?
Carrol