[P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Sun Dec 25 15:46:28 CET 2011

Suggest “The Origins of Political Order” by Fukuyama & “Currency Wars” for p2p’s New Years Reading List. Buchanan’s “Suicide of a Superpower” is full of facts-but not ones that would please the majority of readers.

From: Michel Bauwens 
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 6:02 AM
To: P2P Foundation mailing list 
Subject: Re: [P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

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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Sincerely yours,      Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

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