[PEN-L:28262] recessions and "ideological fogs"

[Jurriaan Bendien <j.bendien@xxxxxxxxxx>]

What I was really referring to when I suggested that recessions clear
"ideological fog" is that they force a rethink and create openings for new
ideas. Thus, for example, the "long boom" of 1947-1973 created the ideology
of the mixed economy in which state intervention could surmount the
contradictions of capitalism if not abolish capitalism altogether. In the
conditions it became very difficult to argue for a Marxist view as such, it
just didn't have much credibility.

The onset of the long recession after that, coinciding with increased
strike activity, created new openings for debate. Who believes that stuff
about the mixed economy now ? Not only did it force a rethink of bourgeois
policy in response to the changing reality of capitalism, it also permitted
a rich collection of Marxist literature to be written and published. The
latter was a good thing, as it provided the next generation with a stock of
concepts and theories from which to develop a new critique of capitalism.

Recently I have been studying the Marxian critique of the Ricardian-type
theory of foreign trade and the world market, which I consider essential
for attacking "globalisation" and modern imperialism. And in doing that I
have benefited from the literature written in the 1970s and 1980s. If there
hadn't been a long recession, that literature might never have been
written. So it had a good side after all.

I would not deny that the clearing away of old illusions can go together
with the forming of new illusions, nevertheless the turn from boom to
recession creates openings for saying something different and winning some
credibility for a socialist or Marxist alternative view. That's all.

Jurriaan