My thoughts upon reading the article: “Why Capitalism Shouldn’t Be Saved” by John Sanbonmatsu in the May/June Tikkun magazine at http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/may_jun_09_sanbonmatsu
Three Quotes that stick with me: “Steinbrück, a leading light of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, stunned his interviewer by invoking the spirit of Marxism to explain what was occurring in the international markets. “Overall,” he said, “we have to conclude that certain elements of Marxist theory are not all that incorrect.”
“If capitalism is indeed beginning to consume itself, the same way it devoured the minds, bodies, and labor of countless human and nonhuman beings over the course of centuries, then for the first time in generations, perhaps ever, we may have a brief opening, a caesura in the long, breathless tale of capitalism and its violence, in which to imagine and to set the terms for a new way of organizing human society and economy.”
“But where are the demonstrations today against the bailout of the banks and brokerage firms, let alone against the capitalist system that is ruining our planet? Who is out there trying to build a vibrant, broad-based socialist movement? Ironically, the unfolding crisis directly or indirectly encompasses every conceivable social movement issue the Left could ever care about-war and peace, individual liberties, feminism, ecology, labor, and animal rights. Yet the Left as such is dead-or might as well be.”
We are still not talking about a post-consumer, post-industrial, economy. What will the post capitalist, post socialist economy look like? With the advent of consumer goods we rejected the ancient communitarian economies. We have been crying about the shortcomings of everything since. We need to have a human, a planetary conversation about how we want to function economically. What are our priorities? Are we ready to really commit to the millennium development goals? I do think that when we take peak oil and global climate change into account we will be talking about both local and global economies that place human development at the top of the list of priorities.