Holding onto the Capitalist Order
Jim Kunstler wrote the following at his blog:
“The next phase of the disease is liable to move beyond the financial and into the social and political realms. Disorder of various kinds will rule — toppled governments, civil unrest, international tension and conflict.”
Kunstler, seems to understand all too well that the Capitalist order of production and consumption is a dying system, but rather than cheering on unrest as necessary if we hope to change the system and survive, he popular action appears to be something he wishes to avoid. In this latest post he gives advice to Kiethner and Obama on how to squelch popular resentment by pursuing and prosecuting the bad apples at the banks, even as he announces that the banking failure is systemic, that the banks are insolvent, and that an eventual day of reckoning will have to arrive.
Again it seems like the critic is holding onto the very social order that he deems to be the cause of the crisis. Imaging deserted suburbs, empty store shelves, cold winters, and the end of automobile is apparently easy. What’s hard is envisioning a way to change how we might use the resources that remain on an egalitarian basis. What’s difficult is finding a positive vision for how everyday people might gain power and improve the quality of our lives even as we are forced to reduce our standard of living as defined by the old system.
Seems to me that Kunster has developed a multiple personality disorder.