Re: reflections on the current crisis
On Aug 21, 2007, at 4:05 PM, Carl Remick wrote:
Yes, and it was great to catch up with that linked masterpiece of
stygian gloom “LBO at 20,” an unbeatable tour d’horizon of reasons
why despair should be any thinking person’s default mode. I wish,
though, that you’d give the old heave-ho to Noam Chomsky’s
whistling-past-the-graveyard mantra that the US is “incomparably
more civilized” than it was in the early 1960s.
Ah, but the uncrushable optimism pokes its head out at the end.
BTW, re your “LBO at 20″ comment, “… the lesson I learned from
the 1987 crash was that the ruling class had mastered the art of
state-led bailouts” — I was reminded of Ralph Nader’s recollection
of paternal wisdom recently in Counterpunch: “My father many years
ago asked his children during dinner table conversation: ‘Why will
capitalism always survive?’ His answer: ‘Because socialism will
always be used to save it.’” Sagacious guy, Nader père.
I scratched my head on reading that. It’s as if “socialism” is a cuss
word in Naderland, and he really prefers capitalism unmodified as a
system. Why not use socialism to socialize it?