(1) Who is WE above (_our_ decline)?
(2) We (meaning the masses, to use an old bbit of commie jargon) arent' declining; we are just getting along as individuals/households the best we can, as people (the overwhlming number i far worse conditons) have been doing for millenia. We are certainly not as badly off as the people described in the chapter on the working day in _Capital_. Were they "in decline"? Well the capitalists were rising, not declining, in the midst of all that misery. So it's ahistorical to think of ourselves as in decline.
(3) Imperial decline? Where is the evidence. Britain begin losing its empire almost before they had completed building it, but the British capitalists are still doing o.k.
(4) The condition of the masses (including the higher strata and the lowest strata) has never been an index to the rise or decline of the ruling strata, especially under capitalism.
(5) Rosa Luxemburg theorized contingency and the real material possiblity/probability of barbarism rather than socialism. As far as I know, she was never in the dumps about it.
(6) If one wants to see history as rise and decline (a fairly traditional attitude), then think about Yeats's Lapis Lazuli:
On their own feet they came, or On shipboard,' Camel-back; horse-back, ass-back, mule-back, Old civilisations put to the sword. Then they and their wisdom went to rack: No handiwork of Callimachus, Who handled marble as if it were bronze, Made draperies that seemed to rise When sea-wind swept the corner, stands; His long lamp-chimney shaped like the stem Of a slender palm, stood but a day; All things fall and are built again, And those that build them again are gay.
Two Chinamen, behind them a third, Are carved in lapis lazuli, Over them flies a long-legged bird, A symbol of longevity; The third, doubtless a serving-man, Carries a musical instrument.
Every discoloration of the stone, Every accidental crack or dent, Seems a water-course or an avalanche, Or lofty slope where it still snows Though doubtless plum or cherry-branch Sweetens the little half-way house Those Chinamen climb towards, and I Delight to imagine them seated there; There, on the mountain and the sky, On all the tragic scene they stare. One asks for mournful melodies; Accomplished fingers begin to play. Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes, Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.
............
The barbarism Luxemburg foresaw was simply more and more capitalism, as in the whole of the 20fth-c. I just don'b believe the metaphor of "rotting" fits capitalist barbarism. The tale of the phoenix is perhaps more relevant.
Change is endless; the direction of that change is only partly under our control. Mass movements, the only source of substantial positive change under capitalism, themselves depend to begin with on conjuctures not under our control; the achievements of such movements when they arise are partly subject to our control. Attempint to theorize those possiblities, as well as what kind of practice (might) ease their appearance, seems a useful activity.
Iwas serious when I ended a post with
"Praise and eternal Glory to the CPUSA hacks(1940 -1960) who were keeping somethng alive and without whom we woudl not be celebrating MLK Day today."
Their "political line was terrible; the accomplished nothing and in that period could have accomplished nothing, but they made something possible. I think we are in a similar period (though one always hopes that something better is "just around the corner." Whether something better comes next week or a couple decades from now, trying to keep something alive is both more useful and more fun that sitting upon the ground to tell sad stories of the death of kings.
Carrol
To knock, that a Blunt should open
That is not vanity
(Pisan Cantos, quoted from memory)
Dennis Perrin wrote:
>
> Doug:
>
> "The country seems to be rotting from within but the political and
> ideological systems are incapable of recognizing that fact, much less trying
> to deal with it. I wish I could detach myself from the consequences and find
> it all amusing, in the style of H.L. Mencken. But I can’t. And now I’ve got
> a kid who was born into this nuthouse, so I take it all far more personally.
> I hope we can get our act together and make this a less brutal place. But it’s
> hard to get hopeful. I guess this is what it’s like to live in the midst of
> imperial decline."
>
> Amen. Like Dwayne's thoughts about being miserable, Doug hits the crooked
> nail. I try to find our decline amusing, more from a satirical angle than
> anything else, but man is it hard. There are times when you simply must
> weep, and this is surely one of them.
>
> Dennis
>
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