tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post6208045527025776997..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: The End of the End of HistoryPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-29969133863325289402018-10-21T18:40:39.932+01:002018-10-21T18:40:39.932+01:00The history coming to an end theory was one that M...The history coming to an end theory was one that Marx subscribed to, or more to the point that history would reach a high point and then at some point thereafter fall off a cliff.<br /><br />Fukuyama thesis is yet to be disproven actually, even if it does still seem foolish. But his end of history is history reaches a high point, which happens to be US style capitalism. Of course I would argue that US capitalism does not even represent the high point of our current world, I can think of loads of examples of places with better values than the US, for example, Sweden, Bolivia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Russia, North Korea, whats left of the Islamic state etc etc.<br /><br />The end of the world we should be talking about is the one the Yvette Cooper loving centre left seem intent in making happen, namely their absurd Russophobia, culminating in Trumps decision to drop the INF treaty, you must be proud. As Trump says the liberals have gone wacko<br /><br />The other end of the world is that which has been caused by Western values being spread to every corner of the globe (from Brazil to India, namely insatiable consumption and sod the consequences, the relentless search for money making opportunities.<br /><br />Yes capitalism certainly does seem like the end point to me, the whole thing will be toast by the time any kind of socialism appears to be universal on the world stage.<br /><br />The liberal twitterarti getting all hot and bothered by Russians, racism, homophobia etc seem to me like a million and one Nero’s, fiddling while everything burns. <br />CCAACnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-54339846296952537672018-10-20T21:47:39.198+01:002018-10-20T21:47:39.198+01:00The 'End of History' imho, is just another...The 'End of History' imho, is just another one of those phrases that self regarding clever people quote to make themselves seem intellectual when they have nothing much to say. Similar to 'the world won't end with a bang but a whimper' or 'a butterfly's wing flap in the Amazon creates a hurricane somewhere else' and many other non sequiturs which take the place of in-depth debate and discussion. Why debate at length when some smart arse can say something clever sounding? It's the pseudo intellectual variation of the person leaving a Steven Hawking book on their coffee table. In 1899, the bloke who ran the patent office in America said that there was nothing left to be patented because everything had been invented. Ho hum.<br /><br />The West is going through a crisis, and though some may think it is the end of history, the Indians, the Chinese, the Brazilians and many others will heartily disagree. <br /> Tmbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-61945654116093198822018-10-19T22:31:07.726+01:002018-10-19T22:31:07.726+01:00The End of the End of History is fine. The Clash o...The End of the End of History is fine. The Clash of the Clash of Civilisations, on the other hand, is getting pretty fucking aggravating, Lidl_Janusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-15148853519613234082018-10-19T20:56:41.344+01:002018-10-19T20:56:41.344+01:00Fukuyama's thesis was a study in hubris, but I...Fukuyama's thesis was a study in hubris, but I think you read too much into current political events; to me they sit squarely within a standard deviation of the long-term norm. It's easy to get het up about right-wing populists in Western nations but they still fit squarely within the 'meta' of liberal democracy, market based approaches, and constitutional checks and balances. On the flip people who obsess over Corbyn's historic Wolfie Smith schtick should understand that's the stuff he did when he didn't think he had a serious political career, now he's got an actual shot at power pragmatism alone is slowly forcing him closer to the centre.Kamonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-37319474705016897372018-10-19T12:08:17.701+01:002018-10-19T12:08:17.701+01:00Yes, I agree with Speedy, above. The left needs t...Yes, I agree with Speedy, above. The left needs to get to grips with, what Bannon et al call, 'economic nationalism'. The right have some justification for pointing out that the 'liberal elite' (managerialist, pragmatic, social democrats) fucked up. It was during their period of hegemonic pomp (on their shift) that the nation state became powerless to the demands of an under-regulated capitalism, leading to the 2008 financial crisis. What these pragmatic managerialists actually promised us was: sensible politics (what works) without old fashioned class prejudices (ideology) and the end to the era of boom and slump. In this classless future, we were all going to live a blissful life of endless consumerism......(the end of history?). What we ended up with was austerity, falling living standards, debt, precariousness and alienation. No wonder social democracy is a busted flush. Of course, no one believes them any more and nobody votes for them.<br /><br />People today are frightened. They do not trust ‘ internationalism’ because it is code for more jobs going abroad (and cheap imported labour). Those bearing the brunt of the ten years of hardship following the crash are in no mood for looking outwards and are bemused by the war of words around ‘identity politics’. The left needs to return to the language of ‘class’, which is an international language. They need to explain the history of capitalism and the rise of the super rich. They need to junk those silly New Labour notions about meritocracy (equality of opportunity) and return to proper socialist values of equality of means. (Jobs, housing, schools, hospitals, transport etc) <br /><br />As Bannon said, (paraphrase) while the liberal left continue to concentrate on identity politics, we will continue to win on the economy.<br />Dialectician1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-81673071111531252182018-10-19T07:58:42.679+01:002018-10-19T07:58:42.679+01:00But he was half-right in so much as concepts of sy...But he was half-right in so much as concepts of systems and planning have been sacrificed to the self-policing market, upon which we in the global north rely for our prosperity, largely at the cost of those in the global south. <br /><br />Post-9/11 Fukuyama was criticised for not having predicted Islamism, and this was indeed, perhaps, a foreshadowing of the existential crisis that he predicted - a reaction against consumerism and liberalism in general and the internal contradictions inherent in Islamic cultures in particular. <br /><br />The subsequent retreat from democracy and rise of authoritarianism/ reaction (Brexit) is a later expression of this existential angst. Marx would be right to identify the invisible hand of economics sitting behind this, but his solutions have been proven to fall flat. <br /><br />With the centre moving to the right, the social democratic policies of JC, Sanders etc are seen as far left, but they are only modest adjustments to a global behemoth, whatever their personal views may be. As Boffy says - they are internationalists, yet with internationalism lies the problem - global capitalism is just too big for national parties, and the structures of global economics mitigate against nations cooperating (rather competing). The EU was created during the "fake" stability of the Cold War. Could it be now? <br /><br />In a sense, the nationalists have got it right(er) in so much as they, perhaps albeit unconsciously, understand the fundamental issue, and their solution - not to destroy but sieze control of the EU is a sensible strategy. The trouble is they are exploiting real concerns for evil ends. But the left, by turning its nose up at the nation state, the existential anxieties of ordinary folk, etc, casts itself as part of the problem, not the solution, and leaves the field free, once again, to the right. Speedynoreply@blogger.com