[P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Sun Dec 25 14:24:26 CET 2011

The end of history guy talks about the future of history.

2011/12/25 Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>

> 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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-- 

Sincerely yours,

     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
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