Would you call yourself a Merxist? In that case, we have a standing challenge that you might be inclined to respond to:
techno: let's organize a debate about the future. You find someone who has a traditional Left / Marxist / Socialist worldview, and I will act as closely as possible like a 19th-20th century Minnesota Populist. Since Populists taught that every example used in organizing should be something anyone could confirm by looking out a window, I will insist that I can use modern examples. Otherwise, I will attempt to be a completely authentic Populist. I predict that even with the "handicap" of 100 year-old political theory, my historical Populism will better explain current political / economic / environmental / technological reality and offer more constructive ways of addressing our civilization ending problems than any other form of leftist / progressive thought.
I predict that even with the "handicap" of 100 year-old political theory, my historical Populism will better explain current political / economic / environmental / technological reality and offer more constructive ways of addressing our civilization ending problems than any other form of leftist / progressive thought.
Are you interested? Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
The point of said theory is to make clear the idea of the surplus -- that portion of the productive process which constitutes the capitalist's potential profit-margin. Capitalist production produces to maximize that surplus, which goes a long way toward explaining why it is unsustainable.
The alternative, as Joel Kovel (among zillions of others) pointed out in The Enemy of Nature, is production for use-value, or "worth," production for human needs rather than "effective demand."
My perspective is not "traditional Left / Marxist / Socialist worldview." Do explore my diaries with DailyKos.com, then come back and tell all what you've discovered. "Imagine all the people/ Sharing all the world" -- John Lennon
