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Financial Crisis Could Herald a Renaissance of Radical Thought
The detonation of the banking sector brought about by the credit crunch has been tantamount to a revolution.
But the greatest transformations in society may come if voters refuse to allow politicians to repair the shattered jigsaw and instead demand a very different future.
Once any institution becomes associated with negligence and greed, the stain is almost impossible to remove.
The true legacy of the economic crisis may not be the emptying of Treasury funds and the decapitation of bank chiefs but the ideas that will circulate in the wake of this scandal.
Aneurin Bevan was able to launch the NHS and build a million homes in the aftermath of World War II. In the calm after the most terrible of storms there was a readiness to think the unthinkable.
The televised horrors of the Vietnam War and the scandal of Watergate stripped the American political establishment of moral authority and emboldened protesters to push for a liberal transformation of society.
Captains of world finance are now similarly discredited. The politicians who danced to their tune may still be in the House of Commons but they stand accused of gullibility.
A political class which accepted claims that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq also failed to heed warnings of the coming financial catastrophe.
The time is ripe for a new generation of Bevans to step forward with a vision of social justice relevant to an interdependent world threatened by violent extremism and ecological disaster -- but where are they?
Barack Obama's top team seem picked to revive the pragmatic politics of the Clinton era rather than pursue a demolition of the status quo. British politics, unlike other European legislatures, has remained remarkably immune to incursions by Greens and radicals of other persuasions.
Britain's Left has not found a home in Westminster but many academics and campaigning charities remain committed to ideas which have been out of political fashion for three decades.
Critics of globalisation have won a following on university campuses. Writers such as Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Naomi Klein line bookshelves -- and recent events will have convinced many that their critical diagnoses of our society were at least partly right.
Those who thought it was barmy to give a mortgage to someone with no job or income have been vindicated. Radicals may feel sufficiently confident to emerge from hibernation and directly engage with politics again.
However, the true hope is not for a new Left-Right confrontation but for clear-sighted leadership. Just as Bevan saw the need for a health service and houses, this bankrupt planet needs a rescue package.
Folly has been exposed; now, there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build anew.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllI will believe it when I see it. In the meantime, I will hold on to realism.
There is already plenty of radical thought. The problem is that it is all being ignored.
Hoa binh
"Financial Crisis Could Herald a Renaissance of Radical Thought"
What are we talking about here? What does "radical" actually mean?
rad·i·cal (rd-kl) adj.
1. Arising from or going to a root or source; basic: proposed a radical solution to the problem.
2. Departing markedly from the usual or customary; extreme: radical opinions on education.
3. Favoring or effecting fundamental or revolutionary changes in current practices, conditions, or institutions: radical political views.
The corporate owned mass media and "progressive" political thought generally is never "radical". Progressives become "single issue" activists and become expert on their issue. The list of "single issues" is forever growing: global warming, unending wars, economic collapse, increasing poverty, massive unemployment,historic social inequality, millions in prison, civil rights and liberties destroyed, etc.
The progressive is forever coming up with a "band-aid" to fix this or that problem. Forever "framed" within the capitalist system, progressive discourse never allows any serious discussion that goes "outside the box". Never is there any attempt to understand the systemic connection between all these major crises now facing humanity.
There is a singular radical (root) cause of the above mentioned crises. That radical and root cause is the decline and collapse of the U.S. and global economic system called CAPITALISM.
Progressive radio programs like DEMOCRACY NOW! forever lament that "the sky is falling", with every program filled with yet more SYMPTOMS that the system
is broken. The capitalist system cannot be "reformed" any more than the Democratic Party can be "reformed" or that by electing a single individual like Barack Obama (or Nader or Kucinich) can any serious "change" be made. We need a new independent and socialist political party
The survival problems now faced by working people world wide cannot be "solved" or fixed by giving billions and trillions to the utterly corrupt capitalist ruling elite.
The World Socialist Web Site is perhaps the best source of daily commentary from an international and socialist (not progressive) perspective.
http://www.wsws.org
The WSWS has been on-line over ten years, six days a week, with information on culture and the arts, history, as well as international news from many journalists and writers.
The Socialist Equality Party, the parent organization of WSWS, can be found at this link: http://www.socialequality.com/
Agree with since1492, there is plenty of economic radical thought that is being ignored, and for good reason. The last president who tried something financially radical was shot.
http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/7/6/2088735.html
Yes, and didn't Lincoln try the same thing before him?
Want to change things for real, how about this for an idea: http://www.thoughts.com/RedNeckPossie/blog/a-way-to-give-power-back-to-the-people-184665/
Hush! The "leftists" of the elite establishment are now in the drivers' seat of the gravy train. All aboard! Happy days are here again!
You don't need to be that radical, just educated - start here - Banketeering http://www.rudemacedon.ca/banketeering.html . It might be 'radical' for the overlords, but just common sense for thou and I to take control of our own money supply.
"Financial Crisis Could Herald a Renaissance of Radical Thought"
Maybe in Wales. US seems too far gone, as per Obama's cabinet.
"Financial Crisis Could Herald a Renaissance of Radical Thought."
If enough people lose their jobs and homes, we'll be seeing radical "action". The radical thinking in this country is proliferating at warp speed!
A big fundamental change is inevitable and is only a matter of time. I am talking about a catastrophic change. We all know there is no debate about that. We can either have a worldwide bloody tumultuous social, political and economic upheaval or a devastating collapse of the life supporting natural environment. It has to be one or the other.
What is on debate here is whether we can still have a gradual or rapid CONTROLLED change. The question is whether we can make our own future or have our future decided for us by that "inevitable scenario" mentioned above? Is our generation capable of it or will we leave it to the following generationss? That is the question. It is not for me to speculate whether or not the generations following ours are capable of such. After all, hope is still hope.
Obama is not IT. Neither is the Republican Party or the Democratic Party of America. Or for that matter, any of the existing political parties in the developed world.
I agree with Hoa Binh when he says that radical thoughts are being ignored.
It will take a figure of significant stature to galvanise humanity towards action and to breakthorugh the rhetoric and provide commonsense and just solutions to the problems of the world. Thankfully there is such a figure - soon to appear on a US television network and speak of the necessity of sharing as the only to way to justice and therefore to real peace. This same man forecast the crash of the global stock markets in 1988. He is known as Maitreya, a spiritual teacher of remarkable insight, love and wisdom.
He has met with influential leaders from all fields, informing them of his solutions to our most pressing problems. His message can be summarized as: "Share and save the world."
He is an educator in the broadest sense and will seek to inspire humanity to see itself as one family, and to create a civilization based on sharing, economic and social justice, and global cooperation.
http://www.Share-International.org