My own conjecture is that lbo-talk is not very successful in attracting "new blood". It is populated mainly by old farts whose postings are predictable like bowel movement. It is no surprise that after 10 or so years they have told each other what there is to say - like an old couple.
Only newcomers can provide new perspectives that can stimulate interest and new interaction. The problem is, however, that newcomers either cannot communicate in coherent paragraphs anymore thanks to debilitating influence of technologies such as texting, or they can but they have no interest in interacting with old farts and prefer more lively company ... Wojtek
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All possible and even likely, but let's not forget the 500,000 pound pile of shit in the room. We are living in dark times with no end in sight. We have a disfunctional political system and a deteriorating economy that threatens at any time to implode and make everbody's lives more miserable and less hopeful than these already are. We seem to be hanging by threads, clinging by fingernails ...
What is there to write about in such a condition, that isn't a retread? Obama has finally noticed that we have a problem of inequality of economic distribution and he says, as if it were news and as if he had nothing to do with the situation, that ``we have to address this issue.'' Really? You don't say. What happened to the two failed wars and the massive financial frauds that you were supposed to do something about? What about the ridiculous NSA national security state that is completely out of control, or the 40% plus military budget? What about your war on whisleblowers? What about public education and its collapse around the country?
After six years of systematically dodging his liberal base, stalling and frustrating all its efforts to advance reforms that might help, Obama is now asking for help to address inequality? Through some magic of disassociation, Obama hints that he will take up inequality as an issue.
What happened to the idea of leadership and why do you suppose you were elected in the first place? Oh, yeah, and where were you two years ago when nation wide Occupy movements had their demos to bring that inequality crisis to your attention? You were busy with DHS coordinating a nation wide and uniform police suppression.
These are all rhetorical questions because we all know the answers and might only differ on the details and what should be done.
And then there is nostalgia for the Postmodern turn. Remember when LBO was supposed to provide a forum to bring a cultural quasi-Marxist critique together with the older pragmatic Marxism of the political economy? Somehow the hard core crush of the US move to the right and the creation of endless war, class war, and direct assault on every possible liberal foundation for social institutions stopped those worries like a bath of liquid nitrogen...
CG