America in Crisis, Part I: Class Conflict

AMERICA IS DEEPLY DIVIDED. For one thing, most Americans want an end to the war against Iraq and some form of universal health care, while the ruling class is committed to the war and to sacrificing social services to pay for it.

This conflict between the rulers and the ruled reflects a deeper, structural rift...

https://bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=178

America in Crisis, Part II: The Liberal Challenge and the Prospects for Socialism

The capitalist class is a tiny minority that needs majority consent to rule. That consent could be lost if social problems are allowed to deepen. Arguing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, liberals align with social discontent in order to contain it.

https://bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=179

Alienation and Dissociation: The Two Sides of Powerlessness

Alienation and dissociation reinforce each other to create a cycle of social powerlessness. In The Hidden Injuries of Class, a worker ponders this dilemma. “The more a person is on the receiving end of orders, the more the person’s got to think he or she is really somewhere else in order to keep up self-respect. And yet it’s at work that you’re supposed to ‘make something’ of yourself, so if you’re not really there, how are you going to make something of yourself?”

https://bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=184

A Time of Transition

Times of transition are very difficult.

In good times, people are more open to new ideas and more willing to organize. The fight for civil rights of the 1950s fed the anti-war movement of the 1960s. Both fueled movements for workers’ rights and for women’s, gay and Black liberation.

https://bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=186