He writes, "There are poignant studies of the indignation and the rage of those who have been cast aside as the state-corporate programs of financialization and deindustrialization have closed plants and destroyed families and communities. These studies reveal the sense of acute betrayal on the part of working people who believed they had a fulfilled their duty to society in what they regard as a moral compact with business and government, only to discover that they had only been instruments for profit and power, truisms from which they had been carefully shielded by doctrinal institutions."
He fears that growing political resentment will lead to escapes into unreason, feeding the rise of the right, something we are seeing in the US and parts of Europe. "This is one possible outcome of collapse of the center," he writes.
He then calls for a renewal of "the radical imagination."
Says Chomsky: "The center is clearly not holding, and those who are harmed are once again shooting themselves in the foot."
Interesting that a left which has battled the Center for all these years seems to bemoans its disintegration--but for a reason. They see a corrosion of formal democracy with corporations and financial institutions increasingly making key decisions with even less transparency and responsiveness to the public.
They also recognize that there is less and less countervailing power with the unions weakened but still hoping to reform systems increasingly resistant to reform. Activists like the Occupy Movement aspire to speak for the 99% but do not seem strong enough or organized enough to do so.
There are cycles of history just as there are business cycles. Marx once wrote that events happen, "the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.' We seem to still be in the tragic phase.
News Dissector Danny Schechter blogs at newsdissector.net. His latest books are Occupy: Dissecting Occupy Wall Street and Blogothon (Cosimo Books) He hosts a show on Progressive Radio Network. (PRN.fm) A version of this essay first appeared on PressTV.com.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
6
5
4
