Wallerstein is unique.\u00a0 Nobody else has presented such a coherent theory of what he calls the modern world-system, from “the long 16th century” up till today; essentially capitalist.\u00a0 There are ups and downs during those four centuries.\u00a0 He is very much at home in the economic Kondratiev cycles–A for up, B for down, but not that much down–and in the political-military hegemonic cycles of the would-be hegemons in the same period.\u00a0 Read Immanuel Wallerstein, become wiser.<\/p>\n
He warns against the Global Right “Lampedusa tactic” of “changing things so that they remain the same”. And insists on Liberty, Equality and<\/em> Fraternity for the Global Left–but sees the French Revolution more as normalizing change<\/em> than as people’s sovereignty.\u00a0 Like faith in the middle classes: they are actually helping the Global Right, when in minority they are enlarged by the majority working classes, when in majority they neglect the working class minority left behind.<\/p>\n Right now Wallerstein sees capitalism in crisis with no remedy–of which I am not so sure–and the US hegemony also in a crisis with no remedy–a view I share–, as the fall of an empire with local elites killing for them; now they have to do most of the killing themselves.<\/p>\n The Global Right, in power for a long time, is now faltering.\u00a0 Time for the Global Left?\u00a0 Or, does Zizek’s brilliant formula “the left never misses a chance to miss a chance” apply?<\/p>\n Wallerstein: Yes!, and offers six Global Left proposals:<\/p>\n No problem agreeing with these general principles.\u00a0 But concrete cases of the Left progressing may be more problematic: the Zapatista revolt in Chiapas 1 Jan 1994 (the day NAFTA came into force), and the first Porto Alegre meeting in 2001.\u00a0 This author was present in both.<\/p>\n Chiapas: The “Zapatista Revolt” was marketed by a clever outside professor; the “revolt” imported high culture from central Mexico.\u00a0 No Maya revolt in Chiapas-Yucatan-Guatemala-Belice-Honduras for equality.<\/p>\n Porto Alegre: an impressive parade of the diversity in “another world is possible” message; many worlds in search of unifying themes and action. Like the theme of inequality. And the action of boycotting companies with unacceptable CEO\/worker income ratios.<\/p>\n HOWEVER, more basic: Wallerstein’s breathtaking overview is limited and limiting; to the West, and to one period, “modernity”.\u00a0 Not Global; and Right vs Left–pro-contra capitalism–is modern. Modernity fostered State, Capital and People: Capital produced more capital and met material demands from people who could pay; State cooperated with Capital, was bought, but also protected People; People fight, for their basic needs survival, wellness, freedom, identity.<\/p>\n I see Western history as expansion\/contraction cycles\u2014before, Greco-Roman expansion–now contracting, in a world with Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Japanese civilizations to mention some–neglected by Western universalist arrogance and ignorance.\u00a0 Next door is Islam, suffering from the same universalism, “the only true faith for all at all times”, and counter-cyclical to the West: when one contracts the other expands.\u00a0 Right now Islam expands and the West contracts.<\/p>\n “Right” stands for Capital growth for material, body, demands; “Left” for State-People cooperation against Capital, for distribution.\u00a0 BUT, for distribution of what?\u00a0 Of the same?\u00a0 Of more things that lead to more empty lives marred by more egocentric loneliness?\u00a0 With Islam expanding, offering We-centric togetherness, sharing for basic needs?<\/p>\n Crisis, indeed.\u00a0 But the way out could be a new discourse, less material, more spiritual; something to live for, not only from.\u00a0 Could be for causes<\/em> beyond egocentric satisfaction; religions offer answers, so do causes like peace, development, environment, the UN Three.<\/p>\n Could be driven by the incredible creativity<\/em> of the human spirit, beyond God’s Creation, consuming arts and sciences produced by others, and by becoming creative producers.\u00a0 Or, simply searching<\/em>, wandering and wondering monks, not letting material things stand in the way.<\/p>\n New Middle Ages? Look, all ages are “middle”, between past and future.\u00a0 “A new contraction phase, into inner, more spiritual lives, into smaller units”, is more indicative.\u00a0 Maybe in Europe and USA with 500 rather than 50 autonomous units?\u00a0 Woven together, cooperating for more mutual and equal benefit; wanting less, hence struggling less?<\/p>\n And the economy?\u00a0 In “land, labor, capital” or “Nature, Humans, Capital”, nature and humans are indispensable. Not only as means, inputs in an economy for growth, distribution or both, but as absolute ends in themselves.\u00a0 The economy must balance naturism, humanism and capitalism, so must economics. Today’s “economics” focuses on capital and growth.\u00a0 Throw it out, produce a human-nature focused economics.<\/p>\n Modernity with its dominant State-Capital-People discourse and reality is now fading.\u00a0 What comes next?\u00a0 “Post-modernity” is an empty expression, meaning “after modernity”.\u00a0 The hypothesis offered here is contraction, in an oscillating history; stimulated in both phases in the West by less sense of balance than found in other civilizations.\u00a0 The bigger the expansion, the power, the bigger the contraction, the fall. Look at Germany, Russia, Turkey, Spain, France, England, USA–.<\/p>\n What happens happens, but add to Wallerstein’s Six Western Left Six humanist-naturist for more balance in the coming contraction:<\/p>\n And global? Maybe reaching other civilizations? Except Islam they are much older than the West, and have survived.\u00a0 Perhaps through more diversity, symbiosis, more balance.\u00a0 Maybe the West can learn from that.<\/p>\n __________________________________<\/p>\n Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a> and rector of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU<\/a>. Prof. Galtung <\/em>has published 1669\u00a0articles\u00a0and book\u00a0chapters, over 400 Editorials for <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a>, and over 167 books on peace and related issues<\/em>, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations<\/em>, including \u2018<\/em>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives<\/a>,\u2019 published by the <\/em>TRANSCEND University Press-TUP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Right now Wallerstein sees capitalism in crisis with no remedy–of which I am not so sure–and the US hegemony also in a crisis with no remedy–a view I share–, as the fall of an empire with local elites killing for them; now they have to do most of the killing themselves. \tThe Global Right, in power for a long time, is now faltering. Time for the Global Left? Or, does Zizek’s brilliant formula “the left never misses a chance to miss a chance” apply?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[232,289,383,70,172],"class_list":["post-79284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-capitalism","tag-economy","tag-sociology","tag-usa","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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