[lbo-talk] "...to reduce US dependence on foreign oil"

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sun Sep 25 10:18:43 PDT 2011


On 9/25/2011 11:24 AM, Rick wrote: I went to one of the "Moving Planet" rallies yesterday sponsored by Bill McKibben's 350.org to help build a movement to force elites to take action on climate change. . . .

It is good that such efforts are going on. Who knows, they might make a difference.

However, I do not believe they will make a difference. Recognition that capitalism is a system, as other social formations are not, becomes relevant here. I do not believe that the "elites" have it in their power to make the necessary changes on a global scale. Just today Herb Fox on SftP list submitted a long post which contains the following sentences:

"It appears to me that the successional question is whether ecosocialism can replace capitalism *soon enough* to prevent the immiseration or possibly annihilation of our species. That leaves as the underlying question what is the rate at which consciousness of the majority of our species can be changed and in consequence act to rest control from the capitalists."

We cannot dictate to those who come after us; we can, perhaps, create for them the freedom which is the precondition for their acting to reverse the trend toward barbarism and, as Her Fox suggests, possibly annihilation. That freedom is impossible under capitalism.

Carrol

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