Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Capitalist Globalization: Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 21, 2014

Capitalist Globalization: Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives

Click here to access article by Dominic Alexander from CounterFire (Britain).

I'm only posting this as an illustration of a popular trend often seen on websites: the posing of anti-capitalist critiques confined to its current stage of neoliberalism. The hidden underlying assumption is the dictum that there is really no alternative to capitalism, but criticizing neoliberalism is okay. Capitalist authorities have little problem with such critiques.

Such critiques serve an important function of diverting attention away from the system itself by focusing only on its latest stage of globalized development. Capitalist authorities are perfectly aware that efforts to return to a nationalistic stage of capitalism will be futile, thus they have little problem with such critics who are regarded little more than a minor nuisance that get in their way from time to time.