Doug Henwood
Carrol Cox wrote: What Buckley wanted to stop was an illusory train rushing towards socialism. What Benjamin wanted to stop was a very real train heading deeper and deeper into barbarism. (Note: I don't say "towards" barbarism: we have it already.)
Oh please. The world is more barbaric now than it was during the days of slavery, Indian genocide, colonialism, early industrialization, mass slaughter in two world wars, Auschwitz, etc.? This is a kind of grandiose narcissism, this lust to be The Worst.
And, really, when did the left turn against change and become nostalgic? What a losing proposition.
Doug
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_The_ worst comes & goes and comes again. That's what barbarism is like. Talk to the survivors of Fallujah. The U.S. called its bombing of North Vietnam Rolling Thunder. We live in a world of Rolling Auschwitz. Has anyone counted up the 'unnecessary' deaths in Africa over (say) the last 40 years.
(Remembered line from Brecht: Whoever remains calm has not heard the terrible news.)
And opposition to change has nothing to do with nostalgia. It's simply the grounds for opposition to capitalism. Love of change for the sake of change is a leftover from the fatuous bourgeois dream of infinite Progress.
Carrol