[P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Sun Dec 25 06:52:37 CET 2011

thanks, a very nice summary of the neoliberal agenda!

On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 6:44 AM, Peter Mazsa <
peter.mazsa at theunitedpersons.org> wrote:

> FYI:
>
> "[...] It has been several decades since anyone on the left has been
> able to articulate, first, a coherent analysis of what happens to the
> structure of advanced societies as they undergo economic change and,
> second, a realistic agenda that has any hope of protecting a
> middle-class society.
>
> The main trends in left-wing thought in the last two generations have
> been, frankly, disastrous as either conceptual frameworks or tools for
> mobilization. Marxism died many years ago, and the few old believers
> still around are ready for nursing homes. The academic left replaced
> it with postmodernism, multiculturalism, feminism, critical theory,
> and a host of other fragmented intellectual trends that are more
> cultural than economic in focus. Postmodernism begins with a denial of
> the possibility of any master narrative of history or society,
> undercutting its own authority as a voice for the majority of citizens
> who feel betrayed by their elites. Multiculturalism validates the
> victimhood of virtually every out-group. It is impossible to generate
> a mass progressive movement on the basis of such a motley coalition:
> most of the working- and lower-middle-class citizens victimized by the
> system are culturally conservative and would be embarrassed to be seen
> in the presence of allies like this.
>
> Whatever the theoretical justifications underlying the left’s agenda,
> its biggest problem is a lack of credibility. Over the past two
> generations, the mainstream left has followed a social democratic
> program that centers on the state provision of a variety of services,
> such as pensions, health care, and education. That model is now
> exhausted: welfare states have become big, bureaucratic, and
> inflexible; they are often captured by the very organizations that
> administer them, through public-sector unions; and, most important,
> they are fiscally unsustainable given the aging of populations
> virtually everywhere in the developed world. Thus, when existing
> social democratic parties come to power, they no longer aspire to be
> more than custodians of a welfare state that was created decades ago;
> none has a new, exciting agenda around which to rally the masses.
>
> AN IDEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE
>
> Imagine, for a moment, an obscure scribbler today in a garret
> somewhere trying to outline an ideology of the future that could
> provide a realistic path toward a world with healthy middle-class
> societies and robust democracies. What would that ideology look like?
>
> [...] the agenda it put forward to protect middle-class life could not
> simply rely on the existing mechanisms of the welfare state. The
> ideology would need to somehow redesign the public sector, freeing it
> from its dependence on existing stakeholders and using new,
> technology-empowered approaches to delivering services. It would have
> to argue forthrightly for more redistribution and present a realistic
> route to ending interest groups’ domination of politics. [...]"
>
>
> http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136782/francis-fukuyama/the-future-of-history
>
> P.
>
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