I've stiched a number of excepts from recent
posts together to show how what struck one lurker
(me). Are the holiday blues just causing me to
take them out of context, or are they meant as
depressingly as they sound when arranged in this
way?
> Doug Henwood wrote (in the context of a much
> large discussion about land rights of native
> peoples)
>
> Maybe there are real positive attractions for
> most/many people that it would be impossible,
> and maybe even wrong, to resist. Is it possible
> to separate the "lures" - the positive aspects
> of capitalist modernization - from exploitation,
> polarization, and the destruction of nature?
>
> Michael Perelman responded
>
> I don't know exactly. I confess confusion on
> this point. For that reason, I appreciate this
> thread so that I can get a better handle on this
> matter.
>
> Doug Henwood responded
>
> I don't know either, really, which is why I
> asked a lot of questions, instead of my usual
> mode of vigorous assertion. Terry Eagleton says
> in his little book on postmodernism that to a
> Marxist, capitalism is both the best and worst
> thing that ever happened to humanity. He's got a
> point.
>
> Sid Shniad interjected
>
> Doug, please address this question yourself. If
> such a separation is not possible, your position
> becomes one of defending capitalism itself, no?
>
> Doug Replied
>
> Following in this morning's PEN-L tradition of
> quoting poets from memory, I'll quote Wallace
> Stevens' "It must be possible. It must!" I keep
> hoping that a more humane social system could
> appropriate the technical and organizational
> knowledge produced by capitalism and re-deploy
> it for purposes other than making money and
> steepening hierarchies. Maybe this is too
> optimistic.
>
Are you all really in the position where your
only basis for believing that we can do better
than capitalism, while preserving the benefits of
modernism, is faith? Do the majority on this list
seriously no longer see an intellectual basis for
believing we can do better than capitalism without
giving up antibiotics and indoor plumbing?
