[A-List] Re: Brian Czech's response to Louis Proyect's critique

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

I thank Louis Proyect for his critique of my book, Shoveling Fuel for a 
Runaway Train.  Having been a co-member of at least 2 listservers, I 
know Proyect has outstanding insight pertaining to macroeconomics and 
political economy.  In fact, I’ll go so far as agreeing with his current 
critique until the last few paragraphs.  Two things happen at that 
point, however, that compel me to respond:  1) He turns his critique 
from Shoveling Fuel to the Carrying Capacity Network, which I have 
nothing to do with, and; 2) His critique essentially ends with Part 1 of 
Shoveling Fuel!  For people on these lists, Part 2 on the steady state 
revolution (especially the class structure thereof) is probably of 
greater interest than Part 1.

I’m not sure how or why this happened.  I do think I have irked various 
economists and activists by twisting Marx’s famous expropriation 
pronouncement to reflect the class structure of the steady state 
revolution (www.steadystate.org).  However, the reality I perceive is 
this:  The American constitutional, capitalist democracy is in like 
Flynn.  Surely it will fall one day, as all have, but not before major 
ecological havoc dooms whatever form of political economy comes in its 
wake.  I searched for a social movement to “save the planet” that could 
function in American democracy, capitalistic as it currently is, 
socialistic as it may evolve, and that is what Part 2 is all about.

I hope more of you read it without drawing premature conclusions about 
the adequacy of the steady state revolution class structure to effect 
real change in consumerism.  A common critique of “skimmers” (and I 
don’t mean Proyect, who had no comments at all about Part 2) has been 
that, by identifying the upper 1 percentile as the liquidating class and 
setting them up for castigation by the steady state class, I have set 
the bar way too high.  What they have invariably missed is the section 
on trickle-down consumption, not to mention the powerful political 
rationale for beginning the steady state revolution with an extremely 
skewed consumer class structure.

You can get a better idea of what I’m talking about by reading sample 
chapter 6, available at the website.

Brian Czech,
Arlington, VA