Subject: [L-I] Re: Fukuyama on US Election (reformatted)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 16:33:13 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Discussions on the Socialist Register and its articles
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Widely known for his book, The End of History and the Last Man, and his
most recent book, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of
Prosperity,
Francis Fukuyama, has been launched to prominence with his argument that
society has entered a new and lasting phase. He claims that the change
is
so dramatic that it might be accurately depicted as representing the end
of
history. Fukuyama derives his argument from the writings of Kant, Hegel
and
a critical, selective reading of Marx. This new phase represents the
worldwide triumph of neo-liberalism (democracy/market fundamentalism)
over
the collapse of Communism. History has ended in the sense that there is
no
more room for large ideological battles. Fukuyama relates his theory of
history to Karl Popper's criticism of historicism and attempts to denote
the connection between Fukuyama's account of history, and that of the
Christian religion. The impact of Fukuyama's work upon the philosophy
of
history and its importance in evaluating the recent course of
international
relations and US foreign policy have been celebrated in conserative
circles.
The Italian Marxist thinker, Antonio Gramsci, dveloped while in Fascist
prison, the concept of cultural hegemony. If you can occupy peoples'
heads,
their hearts and their hands will follow. Antonio Gramsci explains how
one
dominant class can establish its control over others through ideological
dominance. Whereas Marxism explains social structure as shaped by
economic
forces, Gramsci adds the crucial cultural dimension. He showed how, once
ideological authority -- or "cultural hegemony" -- is established, the
use
of violence to impose change can become superfluous. Today, the world
lives
under the virtually undisputed rule of the market-dominated,
ultracompetitive (yet not fair competition), globalized society with its
cortege of manifold iniquities and civilized violence. Many public and
private institutions in all nations that genuinely believe they are
working
for a more equitable world have unwittingly contributed to the violent
triumph of neoliberalism. As many on this list know, perpetual
prosperity
is a mere empty promise of market fundamentalism.
The term hegemony is now proudly used even by Allan Greenspan, Chairman
of
the US Federal Reserve Board, to describe US financial preeminence and
structural advantage. Unlike ideology, politics deals not only with
moral
validity, but also with power. The ideology of capitalism appears
rationally operative empirically because capitalism has the hegmonistic
power to construct a "real" world that is capitalistically consistent
and
rational. No matter how many socio-economic disasters the neo-liberal
system of market fundamentalism has visibly caused, no matter what
financial crises neo-liberlaism engenders, no matter how many losers and
outcasts it creates, market fundamentalism is still made to seem
inevitable, like an act of God, the only possible economic and social
order
available to humankind. Economic slavery is preferrable to starvation,
according to neo-liberal doctrine which poses slavery or death as
natural
alternatives. The World Banks has estimated that globlization has
created
200 million poor people around the world in the last decade. Yet claims
of
globalization's contribution to global properity contine unabated.
Henry Liu via Lou
--
Mine Aysen Doyran
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222
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