Just for context for those who are interested: I think Polanyi had an accurate theory of how peace is maintained and how war occurred in the previous cycle of capitalism that led up to the World Wars, but shouldn't be taken as the only theorist to explain war and peace. I personally do not yet completely know where I stand, even after having read Lenin, (parts of) Hobson other theorists of global imbalances and Giovanni Arrighi. I think Arrighi has the most complete account of how capitalism moves in cycles of peace and instability.
Without knowing anything about these theories or Polyani it seems to me that if we look at the immanent global climate catastrophe (whether natural , man made or a conjunction of both) then we can see fissures in the “global” order as Capital protecting itself from supranational pressure. Societal collapse and war in the Middle East and Africa causing mass migration leads to Fortress Europe , ICE and the development of techniques for liquidating societies (eg Gaza) If we look at those things as Capital defence against a tide of brown people then and the creation of inhospitable wastelands then I think we start to get a clearer picture.
Never more has a mass revolutionary movement been more essential. The focus of all people now must be the disposal of hegemonic structures , capitalism and the installation of a new survival paradigm - if Capital doesn’t decimate mankind directly, a programme which America seems to be pursuing at home and abroad , then the paralysed systems of government elsewhere which protect that Capital will destroy us through inaction.
Collectively we need a war against the climate catastrophe this means an utter negation of all the systems which have we have tried so far.
I am sympathetic to the view you espouse, but would also point to the bifurcation between the West and the rest as being significant and driven by historical revanchism and current neocolonial structures (which are likewise being bifurcated into a Russo-Chinese imperialist bloc and a western imperialist bloc, with smaller imperialist blocs being subdivided betwene them in terms of allegiance (think UAE, Turkey, SA). So I believe it is not necessarily coordinated in that sense.
Couldn’t agree more. I’m not educated in this field and as an amateur commentator , programmed as I was in the West, I find it hard to write as a true Internationalist! Only more recently have I started to see the larger flow and ebb of power and actually how the Western Bloc might be seen from elsewhere.
One of the several oddities that you didn't mention was the operation of the Third World during the Cold War. Led by India, they were a lot more socialist than the US, but a lot less Lenninist than the Warsaw Pact.
Yet did the Third World really alter the course of the Cold War? I suggest not. The Warsaw Pact disintegrated because its prize exhibit, i.e. the Planned Economy which supposedly produced for social need, not profit, proved to be less creative and less productive than the mixed economies of the West. Eg. Virtually no new vaccines from the Warsaw Pact, despite claiming to produce MORE for social need than the West.
Will China hit the same problem? Probably. But it will likely take the rest of the century to find out.
So we must prime our children and grandchildren to sit tight like the West did 1949 to 1989, to let the semi-planned economy of China do the same thing.
There you go Elias - if you want to quote an attempt at wisdom, you're free to with acknowledgement.. Ian
There's some empirical data to back that up actually, because the Chinese growth model has been exhausted for a while now. You can read Michael Pettis's work for that.
I wouldn't call China's great successes at selling solar cells by the million and electric vehicles by the many thousands signs of exhaustion. And Lenovo computers? And the China Aircraft Corporation which is working to get Beijing a major exporter of large passenger jet aircraft by perhaps 2040? And then there's the Belt and Road Initiative are none of these signs of exhaustion in my book. My evidence that the US concentration on military preparedness when Uncle Sam is being clobbered economically, leads me to think that the US is looking more exhausted. A reason why Iran has been able to survive.
How about all this Elias? or are they figments of my imagination? Ian
Just for context for those who are interested: I think Polanyi had an accurate theory of how peace is maintained and how war occurred in the previous cycle of capitalism that led up to the World Wars, but shouldn't be taken as the only theorist to explain war and peace. I personally do not yet completely know where I stand, even after having read Lenin, (parts of) Hobson other theorists of global imbalances and Giovanni Arrighi. I think Arrighi has the most complete account of how capitalism moves in cycles of peace and instability.
Without knowing anything about these theories or Polyani it seems to me that if we look at the immanent global climate catastrophe (whether natural , man made or a conjunction of both) then we can see fissures in the “global” order as Capital protecting itself from supranational pressure. Societal collapse and war in the Middle East and Africa causing mass migration leads to Fortress Europe , ICE and the development of techniques for liquidating societies (eg Gaza) If we look at those things as Capital defence against a tide of brown people then and the creation of inhospitable wastelands then I think we start to get a clearer picture.
Never more has a mass revolutionary movement been more essential. The focus of all people now must be the disposal of hegemonic structures , capitalism and the installation of a new survival paradigm - if Capital doesn’t decimate mankind directly, a programme which America seems to be pursuing at home and abroad , then the paralysed systems of government elsewhere which protect that Capital will destroy us through inaction.
Collectively we need a war against the climate catastrophe this means an utter negation of all the systems which have we have tried so far.
We have the tools.
I am sympathetic to the view you espouse, but would also point to the bifurcation between the West and the rest as being significant and driven by historical revanchism and current neocolonial structures (which are likewise being bifurcated into a Russo-Chinese imperialist bloc and a western imperialist bloc, with smaller imperialist blocs being subdivided betwene them in terms of allegiance (think UAE, Turkey, SA). So I believe it is not necessarily coordinated in that sense.
Couldn’t agree more. I’m not educated in this field and as an amateur commentator , programmed as I was in the West, I find it hard to write as a true Internationalist! Only more recently have I started to see the larger flow and ebb of power and actually how the Western Bloc might be seen from elsewhere.
One of the several oddities that you didn't mention was the operation of the Third World during the Cold War. Led by India, they were a lot more socialist than the US, but a lot less Lenninist than the Warsaw Pact.
Yet did the Third World really alter the course of the Cold War? I suggest not. The Warsaw Pact disintegrated because its prize exhibit, i.e. the Planned Economy which supposedly produced for social need, not profit, proved to be less creative and less productive than the mixed economies of the West. Eg. Virtually no new vaccines from the Warsaw Pact, despite claiming to produce MORE for social need than the West.
Will China hit the same problem? Probably. But it will likely take the rest of the century to find out.
So we must prime our children and grandchildren to sit tight like the West did 1949 to 1989, to let the semi-planned economy of China do the same thing.
There you go Elias - if you want to quote an attempt at wisdom, you're free to with acknowledgement.. Ian
There's some empirical data to back that up actually, because the Chinese growth model has been exhausted for a while now. You can read Michael Pettis's work for that.
I wouldn't call China's great successes at selling solar cells by the million and electric vehicles by the many thousands signs of exhaustion. And Lenovo computers? And the China Aircraft Corporation which is working to get Beijing a major exporter of large passenger jet aircraft by perhaps 2040? And then there's the Belt and Road Initiative are none of these signs of exhaustion in my book. My evidence that the US concentration on military preparedness when Uncle Sam is being clobbered economically, leads me to think that the US is looking more exhausted. A reason why Iran has been able to survive.
How about all this Elias? or are they figments of my imagination? Ian