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Finally, I think it is at least an open question whether liberalism can truly dispense with its herronvolk aspects while retaining its desirable aspects. Surely at least some of what has made liberalism attractive as a social philosophy has been the plain fact that it generates relatively materially comfortable lives for many, and does so better than a great many other social systems that have been devised. So far, however, that has always existed along an imperial-core vs brutally proletarianised outer periphery model. Now, the claim of liberalism is that it can raise standards of living by, basically, converting those outer periphery nations into versions of the imperial core, with their own specialised comparative advantages and cetera. So it’s not zero sum, liberalism creates a bigger pie through encouraging development, and in the medium to long run we all win. There are some success cases for this! But also lots of cases where I suspect that really what is happening is we just shifted the location of ultra exploitation under the global rug, eternally seeking out new more vulnerable populations to exploit surplus value from, and leaving the messy business of suppressing unions and workers movements in those countries to death squads that we’d really rather not think about.
Why I Am Not a Liberal
sootyempiric.blogspot.com
The conflict was not confined to the role and proportion of large-scale industries in the national economy; it extended to the rationale underlying industrial development. Apart from the material prosperity of India, the Committee’s report also used India’s security as a major rationale for the growth of heavy industries. Militarization and development were to go hand in hand, as in the West (the specific case cited was that of Russia). This aim could hardly have cheered Gandhi.
Political Agenda of Education
Krishna Kumar
The forms and channels of abdication are many. One, in recent times, is most favoured. That is: leave it to the NGOs. Non-governmental organisations are supposed to be able to take care of gigantic problems affecting hundreds of millions of people. Problems that elected governments, with the full force of state machinery behind them, apparently can’t handle.
Everybody Loves a Good Drought
P Sainath
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