T-1000, the self-reconstituting cyborg from Terminator II
So, socialism, finally. This has got to be up there with the most unlikely developments of the epoch. After the collapse of planned market economies everywhere, the right’s trouncing of the left, the rise of a near-universal awe of the free market, and the triumph of the unimaginably rich, here we are. What we’re talking about isn’t just a stimulus package, but rather an astounding revolution.
Well, I wouldn’t go erecting statues to Karl Marx quite yet. Capitalism is a wily, tenacious beast. It survived the Great Depression and came out even stronger.
Like the old leftie self-jibe says, socialists have predicted eleven out of the last seven crises. But somehow capitalism just morphs, reinvents itself, and keeps going.
Yes, we’re in a major financial crisis now, with banks and institutions getting semi-nationalized. But the plan isn’t to keep them that way, nor are health care, education, and mass transit being socialized. So this is hardly full-tilt socialism.
Like T-1000, capitalism is reconstituting itself. That borg isn’t nearly dead yet.
what most people seem to forget or don’t know is that it took the munitions build up and the second world war to drag us out of the last recession. Let’s hope the same process is not used this time round. No matter how resilient we think capitalism is, it is a relitively new era and cetainly can’t make the claim to longevity yet.