Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Speaking of volatility

[Rob Schaap <bantam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi again Doug,

> Actually I think it's quite relevant to the intellectual and
> political marginalization of left political economy - it has no
> analytical vocabulary for talking about "good" times,

If the times are usually good for most people, and sustainably so, well, I
wouldn't be a lefty.  That's not to say you don't have a big point.  'The end
is nigh' is empty and lousy politics in the long term.

Unless it is, of course ...

> and overtly or covertly roots for crisis to do the hard political    > work of discrediting capitalism.

Not only wouldn't that be a political strategy, I reckon it'd be wrong.  More
xenophobia, demagoguery, fragmentation, belligerence, and maybe even crassly
dangerous protectionism is what I expect.  But then, I'm an industrial
strength miserablist in my very atoms - optimism being more an American thang.

> It's temperamentally doomy and gloomy, and
> therefore has little emotional appeal to an audience broader than a
> hardy band of miserablists.

You'd have to be hardy indeed to be anything else, I reckon.  The world is
actually in recession, I reckon - and good cheer is hard to find as I trail my
questing finger around my little globe ...

Cheers,
Rob.