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A GUIDEBOOK: HOW THE WORLD WORKS AND HOW WE CAN CHANGE IT
(C) 2001, Richard K. Moore
http://cyberjournal.org/cj/guide/
Chapter 2:
What kind of world do we want?
a. Globalization: crisis and opportunity
===> b. The Moment of Global Convergence
c. Fundamental principles of a livable world
d. Localism, diversity, and genuine democracy
e. Sustainability and its political implications
f. Decentralized sovereignty and global stability
g. Human evolution and the liberation of the spirit
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2.b. The Moment of Global Convergence
The futility of trying to reform capitalism
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There is a long historical relationship between capitalism
and reform. Wherever capitalism has arisen it has brought
exploitation, and that in turn has led to reform efforts by
popular movements. The high water mark of Western reform, in
its relationship with capitalism, was in the postwar era -
1945-1980. During that era prosperity was widespread, and
continued good times were anticipated by most people.
Significant gains were made in regulating anti-social
corporate behavior, opening up governmental processes, and
protecting the environment. In Britain and Europe many
industries and services were put under public control, so
they could be run for public benefit rather than private
profit. Following the popular movements of the 1960s and
1970s, the ending of the Vietnam War, and Nixon's Watergate
disgrace, many people assumed that America, and perhaps the
whole West, had entered a new age of greater democracy and
ongoing structural reform. They thought the Aquarian Age had
dawned.
But that was not to be. In 1980 Ronald Reagan and Margaret
Thatcher led a counter-offensive that stopped reform dead in
its tracks and began driving it into retreat in the US and
UK. The Maastricht Treaty carried the neoliberal plague
across the channel to Europe, and it has since become the
dominant global doctrine. The postwar reform era survived
only as long as it remained compatible with capital growth.
When growth opportunities began to dry up, elites promptly
and effectively changed the rules, beginning with Britain and
the US - so that new growth opportunities could be created.
Many decades of reform, representing the struggle of millions
of workers and good-hearted citizens around the world, was
all undone in a few short years by this neoliberal assault.
In Section 1.f we looked at capitalism's growth imperative,
and noted that capitalist elites _routinely engage in this
kind of societal engineering. The radical changes introduced
by Reagan and Thatcher dramatically illustrate this process,
but that is only one episode from an ongoing series. Every
piece of corporate-backed legislation represents a
micro-engineering project, introducing yet another corporate
advantage into the rules of society. IMF
structural-adjustment programs are examples of macro
engineering: each defines the overall framework under which
some unfortunate third-world nation must operate. 'Reform' -
as used today by Western officials - is simply a name for a
series of engineering changes being applied to society, under
the misleading banner of 'free competition'.
Capitalism _requires growth. At the top of the heap, the big
banks and investors make their money exclusively from growth
investments. If none were available, they would withdraw
their immense funds from the markets and the rest of the
global economy would collapse. Over the past 150 years or so,
Western economies have been gradually re-engineered to the
point where they now depend at every level on growth to
continue functioning. Our very money system is based on banks
lending money into existence. The only way the funds can be
repaid is for the borrower to go out there in the marketplace
and gather more funds than he borrowed, in competition with
every other business and entrepreneur. And when you add on
the interest charges, there just aren't enough funds
available to enable all the repayments. Hence the money
system itself forces businesses to desperately seek monetary
growth.
Capitalism can be compared to an automobile, and growth to
its petrol (gasoline). If we want to use the automobile to
get around, then we must provide petrol. Similarly, if we
want to base our economies on capitalism, then we must permit
growth - and the societal changes that go with it. To think
we can reform away the growth or the changes, while retaining
capitalism, would be like sitting behind the wheel of our car
and expecting it to run on an empty tank. It is asking for
the impossible. And yet growth, in the way that capitalism
defines it, is destroying the planet. A livable world cannot
be achieved by reforming capitalism.
The necessity of a regime change
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
People often name _greed as the explanation for why
capitalism is always seeking greater growth. If it were only
greed, then there might be some hope of struggling to reform
it. Greedy people can be persuaded to survive on less, even
if they don't like it - if put under sufficient pressure. But
what if you ask them to give up everything they've got? In
that case you are backing them into a desperate corner, and
they will resist to their last breath. That is how it is when
we seek substantial reform from the capitalist regime. For
the regime to accept such reform would be agreeing to the
collapse of their whole system. From their perspective, they
are protecting _us as well as themselves by resisting
substantive reform. Indeed, they often refer to public
opposition as 'misguided sentimentalism'. The closer one is
to the center of power, the more impossible it becomes to
imagine the system being substantially transformed.
We must understand that previous reform 'successes' have been
in fact temporary accommodations. Whenever the people made
enough noise, they would be granted some concessions - _but
only as long as way could be found to continue capital
growth_. The postwar reform era was embraced because a grand
new project of third-world development had been launched, and
for nearly thirty years that project provided enough revenue
to fund both capital growth and popular prosperity in the
West. When the boom evaporated - as they always must - the
accommodations and prosperity were promptly withdrawn. We
then found out where the real power lies in Western society.
"All around the mulberry bush,
the monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought it was all in fun,
Pop! goes the weasel."
- traditional children's song
Ever since the Industrial Revolution began, the popular
monkey has been chasing the elite weasel around the national
political arena - playing the game of 'Reform'. The monkey
thought the game would go on forever - but the weasel has put
an end to the game and has turned on the monkey with a
ferocious attack. Globalization signals a strategic decision
by the regime to abandon any efforts at reaching a mutual
accommodation with Western populations. With globalization
the regime has launched a full-scale assault on Western
societies, aimed at dismantling them and disempowering them -
leaving no firm ground for the people to stand on. That's why
devolution in Britain and Europe is now being encouraged -
while in earlier decades popular initiatives toward
devolution were firmly resisted.
Major political parties in the West are all committed to the
neoliberal agenda - making it clear that 'politics as usual'
can only hasten our decline into the Dark Millennium. At the
Rio Earth Summit, and at the more recent summit in Nice, the
regime made it clear that organized international initiatives
for substantial reform will not succeed. The arrogant
ferocity with which police have suppressed anti-globalization
demonstrations makes it clear that direct popular initiatives
for substantial reform will not be tolerated. The regime is
firmly committed to pursuing capital growth, regardless of
the human and environmental costs - and the regime is firmly
committed to using every means at its disposal to defend that
agenda.
A livable world cannot be achieved until capitalist-style
growth is abandoned. The current regime is irrevocably
committed to the capitalist system and is intent on
suppressing all attempts at fundamental change. Only by
removing the current regime from power altogether - both
internationally and within our nations - can we begin to make
those fundamental changes necessary to assure the survival
and well-being of humanity.
The Moment of Global Convergence
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If we look at history, we find only three ways that
entrenched regimes have ever been removed from power. Either
they have been removed by forces external to the realm, or
power has been usurped by a faction from within the ruling
hierarchy, or else a mass popular movement has been the agent
of change. There is no 'outside' that can effectively
challenge today's global regime, and a power shift within the
hierarchy would leave our situation basically unchanged. A
mass movement is the only available means to replace the
regime and permit the development of a livable world. The
'historical moment' is right for such an endeavor, based on
the opportunities and discontents created by globalization
itself. The challenge is clear for those who seek to achieve
a livable world: our task is to participate in the
development a movement which can effectively engage the
regime and which can go on to lay down the foundations of a
better world.
For such a movement to succeed, it will need to be _very
broad based, and it must be global in scope - since the
regime is global in scope and is well prepared to defend
itself. The movement will need to be particularly strong in
America, since Uncle Sam continues to dominate the globe
militarily and could suppress an uprising anywhere else (as
it does regularly already). The movement cannot leave out any
significant segment of the population, or else that segment
would be exploited by the regime to divide the movement and
to provide a base of support for itself. Besides, what
segment of the population would we want to leave out of our
new society? We _all need to live together in the new world,
and now is the right time to start finding out how we're
going to do that. Building a movement together is an ideal
way to learn how to work with one another, and to learn from
one another.
In Chapter three we will look into the questions of movement
strategy and organization, and the prospects for success. In
looking at these questions, we will consider not only the
challenge of overcoming the regime, but also the problem of
following through and laying lasting foundations for a
livable world. History is full of mass movements which
toppled regimes - only to have power usurped in the end game
by new tyrants. We will seek to identify movement structures
which can sustain the vision and coherence of the movement
even through the crisis of victory, and which can avoid the
turmoil and confusion that can so easily follow the collapse
of a central regime.
For now, let us assume that a broad-based global movement
_does arise and achieve victory, and that it maintains its
coherence after that victory. Such an event would bring us to
an historic _Moment of Global Convergence_. For the first
time ever the people of the world would have an opportunity
to collectively chart their own destiny - without pressure
from outside threats, and without compromise with an existing
regime. We would have the opportunity to set up a lasting
global system, and we would have the opportunity to refashion
the nature of our societies and our communities. We could
establish an economic system that serves human needs, that
respects the Earth which nourishes us, and which is not
limited by any ideological agenda. All possibilities would be
opened to us, constrained only by our own human limitations
and those of the Earth and Universe.
Fortunately, this appealing scenario is precisely what we
_should be assuming as we consider the question, "What kind
of world to we want?". After all, if a global mass movement
does not achieve victory, then the regime will not be toppled
- and if the regime is not toppled, we will have no chance to
implement any of our visions. IN OUR STRUGGLE WITH THE
CAPITALIST REGIME, WE WILL GET ALL OR WE WILL GET NOTHING.
The canvas before us is a broad one indeed - proceeding on
the assumption that victory has been achieved. Our challenge
in this chapter is to explore how we will be able to make
best use of the Moment of Global Convergence. We will not be
engaging here in idle utopian dreaming, rather we will be
seriously considering our constraints and opportunities, as a
movement and as a species.
We can hope by this investigation to make a useful
contribution to the emerging movement. For the movement to
begin to come together, one of the things it will need to
develop is a unifying platform of movement objectives - a
vision of the world the movement is seeking to create. That
platform / vision will need to emerge from the movement
itself, organically, as part of the collaborative movement
process. What we can attempt in this chapter is to put
together a comprehensive platform outline, and put it forward
for consideration by the various constituencies of the infant
movement.
The remainder of this chapter is intended for three different
audiences. First, it is intended for general readers: may you
be encouraged to think outside the limits of our current,
hierarchically-constrained societies. Second, the chapter is
addressed to movement activists: may you seek alliances among
diverse constituencies, and think in terms of coalition
agendas. Finally, the chapter is a timecapsule addressed to
the future victorious movement: may you show wisdom in the
structures you establish.
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