[P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Sun Dec 25 15:02:08 CET 2011

a nice displacement <g>

On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 8:24 PM, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis <
xekoukou at gmail.com> wrote:

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