[P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Sun Dec 25 14:50:05 CET 2011

>From wikipedia;
" He has written a number of other books, among them *Trust: The Social
Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity* and *Our Posthuman Future:
Consequences of the Biotechnology
Revolution<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Posthuman_Future>
*. In the latter, he qualified his original 'end of history' thesis,
arguing that since biotechnology increasingly allows humans to control
their own evolution <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution>, it may allow
humans to alter human nature <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature>,
thereby putting liberal democracy at risk."

He thought that only through biotechnology  other political views could be
put back in the history agenda. lol.
The occupy Wall street movement made him reconsider OR i say, Or, illegal
experiments have been done on humans...
When protestors march about poverty, he will go with a "bioscanner" and ask
them:
"Have you been genetically modified?"

2011/12/25 Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis <xekoukou at gmail.com>

> 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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>>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
>
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
>      Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
>
>
>

-- 

Sincerely yours,

     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
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