I reviewed
Street Fighting Man by D. Casey.
I am a little concerned about the worldview by which he interprets a possible future of social unrest in the United States.
The notion that police and armed forces are more loyal to their organizations than human life requires quite a leap of faith to believe. Is it appropriate to lump all or even most of the police and armed forces into a category of rabid jar heads with little or no respect for human life?
Perhaps if we are in a state of total chaos with rioting throughout the country or in a state of armed conflict with an invading force, this would be the case. However, as even Casey mentions, the petty bourgeois wont revolt until probably in the later stages of the "greater depression" and it would be through such things as non-compliance with property taxes, etc.
The Casey article also mentions the Great Depression as a time when people had more practical skills for survival than they do now. However, the Casey article does not mention capital accumulation from the 1930s until now. We have a far greater resource base than for instance Zimbabwe.
What I am simply suggesting is that there may in fact be a transition away from Corporatist state control of citizen activities in this country given (a) access to accumulated capital in building new methods of living and (b) a lack of domestic instability to foment the rapid "neutralization" of unrest.
Besides, come later this year when the bailouts arent working their magic and congress asks for more money, China will say, "hey wait a minute! we want a guarantee our investments will be safe."
Enter: IMF audit of USA financial system.
Did you see lately that the UK is going to maybe take some IMF money for restructuring? and as we know the IMF, World Bank was formed as parts of the Bretton Woods institutions under the aegis of US control in 1945, yet something happened...
the developing countries developed far enough to now throw their weight around and
influence the IMF. Uh oh... we didnt see that one coming, says the elite.
I think the US will run out of credible $$$ before the you know what hits the fan.
Besides, the US has a long long history of stable democracy. Zimbabwe does not. The idea of
liberty and freedom is ingrained in the hearts and minds of US citizens, even if only in an ideological sense which will nonetheless influence US citizens' thought patterns here in the near future.
