"In capitalist democracies the people neither make the laws nor interpret them nor enforce them. They vote, and through their vote are supposed to exercise compete, if indirect control over legislation"
By Moore in "The critique of capitalist democracy"
03 September 2009
31 August 2009
Small Scale Government Possible in a Small World.
Large centrally planned states do not have a very positive history. Economic planning on a large scale in general does not.
Parliamentary democracy is doomed as the state organization of capitalism.
Democracy is ingrained as a positive in the American mind, and this is not wrong. What is wrong is that the important point of democracy for who? is not commonly asked
Is voting every few years really active enough to be successful politically? (Of course not Kautsky)
What was impossible in the past has now become a possibility. Proletarian democracy existing in small individual units. The soviets were originally conceived of in this way, but centralization followed. With email, texting, etc. the world of the blackberry may make localization of government into small workable groups possible (talk about capitalism bringing forth a condition of existence of socialism)
As the world becomes metaphorically smaller through technology, widespread coordination of small political units becomes increasingly feasible.
Many problems still remain, such as turning "Joe Sixpack" into a Gramscian intellectual who cares about politics, and is aware of exploitation, and destroying the dominance of finance capital to name just a couple.
Still one of the steps that moves us closer to my utopian vision, and could help give us market communism (as opposed to the state capitalisms of the past) is daily growing to be less of a burden.
Localization without efficiency loss would be a big hurt for big business, and be an important step in getting power into the hands of the masses.
Parliamentary democracy is doomed as the state organization of capitalism.
Democracy is ingrained as a positive in the American mind, and this is not wrong. What is wrong is that the important point of democracy for who? is not commonly asked
Is voting every few years really active enough to be successful politically? (Of course not Kautsky)
What was impossible in the past has now become a possibility. Proletarian democracy existing in small individual units. The soviets were originally conceived of in this way, but centralization followed. With email, texting, etc. the world of the blackberry may make localization of government into small workable groups possible (talk about capitalism bringing forth a condition of existence of socialism)
As the world becomes metaphorically smaller through technology, widespread coordination of small political units becomes increasingly feasible.
Many problems still remain, such as turning "Joe Sixpack" into a Gramscian intellectual who cares about politics, and is aware of exploitation, and destroying the dominance of finance capital to name just a couple.
Still one of the steps that moves us closer to my utopian vision, and could help give us market communism (as opposed to the state capitalisms of the past) is daily growing to be less of a burden.
Localization without efficiency loss would be a big hurt for big business, and be an important step in getting power into the hands of the masses.
Inspiration
So I have not posted in a while. The problem is not that I have been ignoring Marxism, but rather that I have been immersed in it. Studying for a comprehensive exam in Marxism while trapped in the bourgeois institution that is an American university. Sigh. I have found studying the two topics of imperialism and Marxist theories of the state interesting but not stimulating. It was not until returning to readings on epistemology and ontology that I have been compelled to think deeply again. Some of the most important theorists in this tradition (Gramsci, Althusser) have believed that a unique theory of knowledge is just as important to the revolution as acts carried out in the concrete-real. Who am I to disagree.
Contradictory to that last statement I don't have anything specific I want to write about at the moment, rather it is in examining contradiction as a concept that I perhaps have found my muse again? What will the next few days of stress and mental exhaustion bring? Often it is times of deep stress that bring great change. Viva la revolution.
Contradictory to that last statement I don't have anything specific I want to write about at the moment, rather it is in examining contradiction as a concept that I perhaps have found my muse again? What will the next few days of stress and mental exhaustion bring? Often it is times of deep stress that bring great change. Viva la revolution.
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