[P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Sun Dec 25 19:04:48 CET 2011

I’m wary of everyone & their facts. Easy to write off things you disagree with by calling the author a  liar. But few are totally correct or in error. Buchanan’s Chapts 8 & 11 were well worth throwing into play, and he’s solidly against preemptive war which should get a few points 2 make up for his derision of multiculturalism.

From: Sandwichman 
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 9:04 AM
To: P2P Foundation mailing list 
Subject: Re: [P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left

Even if you agreed with Buchanan's politics (God forbid), you should be wary of his "facts." He lies in a very discrete way, citing as "sources" sources that his real sources have egregiously and maliciously misquoted. In plain terms that is plagiarism. Lying plagiarism.

On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 6:46 AM, Natalie Golovin <10natalie at cox.net> wrote:

  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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