Date: Sat, 15 Nov 1997 11:50:10 -0600 (CST)
From: "William S. Lear" <rael-AT-zopyra.com>
Subject: Re: M-I: The Vortex of the World Market, or Capitalism Sucks


On Sat, November 15, 1997 at 10:15:26 (-0500) Doug Henwood writes:
>Mark Jones wrote:
>
>>Doug, does Anwar Shaikh think there will be oil shortages?
>
>Don't know about the oil issue specifically, but Shaikh is very emphatic
>that the ecological crisis isn't really a problem - he thinks capitalism,
>being a dynamic & flexible system, can deal with it. I strongly disagree,
>by the way.

On what grounds do you disagree?  I'm sympathetic (in a not too
terribly informed way) to this assertion that the system will handle
these problems.

>I myself doubt a shortage of oil will be a problem anytime soon; if
>anything we have too much oil, too cheaply. The real shortage will be of
>breathable air after we burn the oil, and of a life-supporting landscape
>after we build all the roads to burn the oil on. Not to mention a society
>worthy of the name as we enclose ourselves in steel cabins, hurtling around
>with dreams of freedom.

Ah, nice word carpentry, Doug---cabins of steel and dreams of
freedom---I really like that.  I have images of a red-flanneled Rush
Limbaugh rushing by in a hateful blur, sitting on the porch of his
rickety wood cabin with steel stapled to the outside, his flabby,
pimply butt shaking like fetid jello, screaming at the world, as his
smokestack belches putrid black fumes, burning on logs of hate and
despair.  Gee, now you got me started...

The question remains, once we have turned the earth into a moonscape,
why will capitalist relations cease (if that is not too broad a way to
phrase these sorts of guesses)?

It's not like I want to quit the fight for freedom, but I can see the
merits in what I think is a reasonable, and psychologically useful,
argument---that capitalism indeed will not overthrow itself, that
human creativity, despite it's malodorous ends and means under
capitalist relations, will win out, and will adaptively transform the
prison cell.  Thus the only option is to maintain and intensify the
fight ourselves (not that you are arguing otherwise, but I think that
downfall scenarios can play into that), and we are therefore on the
right track, more or less.


Bill


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