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previous issue
issue #17, posted 4 /2 / 2011
archive of all issues
Disaster Capitalism and Class
Struggle
in the news: Back in September, 2008, as
the American Congress
contemplated bailing out Wall Street and the survival of capitalism
supposedly hung in the balance, Naomi Klein, author of The
Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, warned, "Whatever
the events of this week mean, nobody should believe the overblown claims
that the market crisis signals the death of ‘free market’ ideology."
She says that crises "are very, very handy, because you can say we
have no choice...the sky is falling in." Klein and others charge that
an affluent, greedy, powerful few are increasingly using both manmade and
natural disasters or fear of them, to force changes on the frightened,
less fortunate, often powerless, many--changes that will bolster their
position in ongoing class warfare.
One might argue that in the USA,
until
recently, no one talked about class struggle. It
was seemingly a topic buried with the end of the Soviet Union, the Berlin
Wall, Marxism, etc. a couple of decades ago. Then Warren Buffett, in
lamenting the massive transfer of wealth in the USA from the poor to the
rich in the last three decades and arguing that he and other billionaires
should pay more in taxes, was
quoted as saying, "There’s
class warfare, all right...but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s
making war, and we’re winning.” Now Market Watch's Paul
Farrell, apparently distressed by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's war on
public sector unions and Michigan governor Rick Snyder's hiking taxes on
seniors and the poor by $1.7 billion in order to give corporations a $1.8
billion tax break, refers (in a
recent article) to the class struggle as a "civil
war." And North Carolina State University professor Michael
Schwalbe, in answering students who question whether class struggle
exists, writes, "Class struggle is going on all the time in every
major institution of society. One just has to learn how to recognize
it."
commentary and analysis (by Stephen P. Cook, founder and manager,
project Worldview, www.projectworldview.org): Assuming
such class warfare exists, one can attempt to identify the major themes in
the worldviews of the combatants. Here's my quick reckoning of this:
Assuming this is a (as yet, non-shooting) war necessitates
that each of these opposing worldviews value and is actively Working for Change
(theme #35B). With disaster having occurred or looming,
and the emergency prompting talk of suspending democratic niceties, those
in charge of cajoling or bullying to get concessions need a The
Threatening Person (theme #29B) mentality.
Klein's and Farrell's assertion that
wealthy capitalists are trying to use disasters to advance their agenda
suggests that we examine how each side values another worldview theme:
Apocalypticism (theme
#9B). Shearing this theme of any religious connotations leaves
belief in and potential fear of "some catastrophic event after which
life won't be the same." While I can't dispute the numerous examples
of the powerful using disasters to their advantage that Klein's book
provides and subsequent history offers, I think that if they are seeking
to truly "win" the class struggle, the affluent are playing with
fire--and courting a really big disaster. It seems the
"haves" would fear apocalyptic events much more than the
struggling desperately poor "have nots," who have little to
lose. Certainly this is the case if the apocalyptic event is a revolution,
triggered by feelings of "we have nothing to lose" and
hopelessness, that overthrows the existing order. Certainly the
powerful are smart enough to leave the less fortunate a few crumbs so that
they won't revolt and bring the sky falling in on them?
Examples of that happening? In the revolutionary turmoil of 2011 sweeping
North Africa and the Middle East see recent actions of the Saudi royal
family.
Note: For a somewhat different perspective
on related topics see: Worldview Watch issue #10:
Technology, Disasters, and Moralistic Apocalpyticism.
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