Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Michael Perelman wrote:
>
> >Is this discussion or the elitism thread going anywhere?
>
> Not really, but does any thread ever go anywhere?
It's the journey, dudes, not the destination.
Right now, I think liberalism'd be a lovely idea. I'm sure we'd've got
there years ago if the plutocrats hadn't hit on the idea of pinching the
term for their preferred option - but then
imperialist-mercantilist-socialism-for-the-rich-capitalism-for-the-poor-socially-reactionary-polity-dissolving-militarist-corporatism
is a tad unwieldy, I guess.
Don't some recent thought-pieces coming outa the states sound a bit like
people are starting to wonder where the 'democratic' bit of 'democratic
capitalism' has gone (a Benjamin Barber the other day, and, if memory
serves, even Tom Friedman a little while back)? Not very good articles
(neither identifies a tension between the forces and the relations, for
instance, but then this ain't Fantasy Island), but symptomatic of
anything out there in popular sentiment, d'ya think?
And ain't Latin America looking a treat just now? This is the first
time in twenty years I haven't really badly wanted to go there (mebbe
that's just coz I'm not in Africa). And how long before we find out
what sorta smelly junk bonds those big investment banks are hiding under
the ledger books? And is there a single Dow member trading anywhere
near what 'value' used to mean yet? How goes the current account? How
travels that latter-day saviour, the consoomer?
Plenty to thread aimlessly about in the months to come, methinks.
Cheers,
Rob.
