Re: The frontier of modern imperialism: primitive accumulation in Iraq, at the taxpayers expense

[joanna bujes <jbujes@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, the "Life is Beautiful" argument. (That Italian movie where a
clownish man acts out in order to convince his son that a concentration
camp is not a concentration camp. I couldn't force myself to see it, but
apparently that was the plot)...or perhaps "Schindler's List," where the
essential argument is "you can have benign capitalism (Schindler) or
psychotic capitalism...there is no alternative. Still, can this lead to
a vital society? History argues otherwise.

The "message" being disseminated in the U.S. is that all the
manufacturing jobs can go abroad because then Americans will simply be
the managers of world wealth and world labor, what it takes to enforce
that is a different story--whether it is through military means or
religious brainwashing. I mean it might work, but not for very long.
Perhaps, for once, I'm being an optimist.

Joanna

Jurriaan Bendien wrote:

> > Empires do die because something in human
> > nature either revolts or cannot thrive in this kind of environment.
>
> I agree totally with your sentiments, but you may not be correct on this
> point. Suppose that instead of getting people to revolt, you get them to
> mutate in some way, let's think of a biophysical mutation (or, in religious
> terms, a rapture) which causes people to see the world in a different way,
> and so that they see the trading process in a different way, so that terms
> of exchange can be transformed, so that cultures change, and so that social
> institutions change, and consequently so that different values are placed on
> assets and liabilties. Couldn't the empire continue in that case, for
> example, take the case of New Zealand, if you only BELIEVE ?
>
> Jurriaan