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On 1:59 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:
> (Over on LBO-Talk there's a thread of the muleheadedness of the
> American people, describing themselves as "against big government"
> while demanding that social security and other such entitlements be
> defended. This article is about poll that demonstrates how far this
> lunacy goes.)
> =============
Lunacy hardly captures the full extent of the sinister aspect to this.
First, polls like this don't usually ask if the same citizens support
what is perhaps the biggest government "program," namely, war. And most
do. It's been nearly twenty years that Iraq has been a target of U.S.
imperialism, and although support for it has gone down, it remains true
that most Americans will still wave the flag as soon as it is handed to
them. Rally around the U.S. goons fighting for Wall Street in Iraq and
Afghanistan or anywhere else imperialism sends them. Second, eliminating
the imperialist war budget would make it possible to solve many endemic
social problems (e.g., unemployment, homelessness, provide free
education for all through university level, free socialized medicine for
all, plant flowers and trees along all highways, expand the national
park system--the list is long). But most Americans are so politically
ignorant that they prefer to support policies that are directly against
their own interests. It is a boondoggle system perfected by the ruling
class over two centuries. Many actually believe most of the rest of the
world is dying to get into America, where streets are paved with gold.
So, where does this leave the "proletariat," which Marxists look to
as the social agency that is supposed to usher in civilization to
replace the capitalist barbarism? That seems like the most fraught
question for Marxists these days. With the "proletariat" dwindling, and
the workforce increasingly atomized and reduced to piece work (thanks to
technology) and no prospect of unionized protection, it seems sometimes
that the orthodox Marxian view of revolutionary agency borders on
quasi-religious faith more than a "scientific" analysis.
Ray Dunne used to say that during the 1934 Minneapolis strikes,
even Catholic workers ran out into the street during a
government-supported anti-union march to rip the cross off the neck of
the monsignor in the parade, demonstrating that during times of social
crisis and struggle, ideological beliefs, including religious faith, can
quickly fall away.
But here we are, after the biggest crisis of capitalism since the
1930s, not yet overcome, and polls like this show just how confused and
backward most of the American "public" really is.
David
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