On Apr 16, 2010, at 10:38 PM, SA wrote:
> This discussion was originally about whether neoliberalism has led
> to a less repressive society. It's a quite different question
> whether the balance of "change" in these years has been positive or
> negative.
>
It was long before anyone had conceived of "neoliberalism" when
Herbert Marcuse clearly delineated the essential ideology, and
practice, of degenerate capitalism as "repressive desublimation."
> One thing I'd argue is that over the 200-or-whatever years of
> capitalist history, there have been few episodes where social
> repression was challenged as forcefully or as successfully as during
> the 30 or so postwar years when capitalists were forced into a
> market-stifling compromise settlement. The neoliberal era that
> followed has witnessed more liberal norms, but also a very palpable
> crackdown - or clampdown, as someone sang once - against disorder
> and defiance. Just look at New York City...
Shane Mage
This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
kindling in measures and going out in measures."
Herakleitos of Ephesos