Carrol
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On
> Behalf Of Wojtek S
> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 1:39 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Eric Hobsbawm
>
> Chuck G: "Why couldn't a true parliament of honestly elected
> representatives not work? Because, behind that apparently liberal
> solution, lay the vast wealth and power of the big capitalists and
> they had no intention of giving up their power and wealth, or allow
> those to be limited or controlled by a state, period."
>
> [WS:] But we know from history that getting rid of one elite creates a
> vacuum that is quickly filled with a new one, of the revolutionary
> provenance. Revolutions tend to eat their own children.
>
>
> The problem that underlies the revolutionary discourse, by which I
> mean getting rid of elites to get rid of social problems, is
> insufficient understanding of the basic social fact that elites are
> created by situations under any circumstances. Getting rid of
> entrenched elites may - but does not have to be -necessary for a
> social change, but that is not a sufficient condition for preventing
> the emergence of new ones. What is needed is a certain social order
> that creates checks and balances that inhibit, if not altogether
> prevent the formation of elites. Unfortunately, by destroying the
> existing social order revolutions tend to create fertile ground for
> the emergence of new elites. Trotsky was aware of this when he talked
> about the creation of a new working class "civil society" - a
> sentiment echoes by his friend Gramsci.
>
>
> With that in mind, meaningful reforms create a much better potential
> for inhibiting the formation of elites than revolutions do. It is so,
> because social order is basically preserved during reforms and that
> can create basis for norms and rules of behavior that may inhibit
> elites. Of course, it does not mean that such rules and norms will
> emerge, but at least they have a chance. Revolutions, where to quote
> Mao, powers grows from the barrel of a gun, give no such chance.
>
> It is interesting to observe that Scandinavian countries that have
> never experienced a revolution have one of the most egalitarian
> society on this planet
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GINIretouchedcolors.png. By
> contrast, countries that emerged from revolutions, be it the US or the
> USSR eventually developed astonishing levels of social inequality and
> elite hegemony despite egalitarian rhetoric justifying these
> revolutions.
>
>
> --
> Wojtek
>
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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