[lbo-talk] it's over

Patrick Bond pbond at mail.ngo.za
Sun Mar 8 19:22:05 PDT 2009


Doug Henwood wrote:
> Oh yeah. After we get through this they'll start up again, unless we
> stop them. That's the great flaw of crisis-o-philia: a problem, even a
> serious one, is taken as something truly transformative. It's probably
> not. Financial crises, ponzi schemes, massive defaults - they've been
> an intimate part of American history from the beginning.

Uh uh. Let's try that again, shall we, comrade:


> Oh yeah. After we get through this they'll start up again, unless we
> stop them. That's the great merit of crisis-o-philia: a problem, even
> a serious one, can be taken up as something intrinsic to the
> capitalist mode of production, hence calling forth an argument for a
> truly transformative system, socialism. But this potential can only
> arise if we build in analysis of crisis tendencies to our
> understanding of capitalism, instead of pooh-poohing them as might a
> cynical New Yorker. Financial crises, ponzi schemes, massive defaults
> - they've been an intimate part of American history from the
> beginning. And to make an argument in favour of ending capitalism, we
> need to be frank about this. The way Martin Wolf did in the FT.



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