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Originally Posted by phoenix
people are not quite intelligent enough on the whole for any form of democratic politics to ever work, long term.
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I would say that's precisely the basis on which democracy
functions - not by everyone making a rational choice based on personal understanding, but by the fear of the 'other' (in this case, the presumed idiocy of the masses) making a bad decision. For me, ostensibly on the left (and in Whitehall terms, centre-left by default of the Conservative party), my voting will likely be defined not by a rational decision, but by a fear of what my 'other' will vote for.
Democracy shouldn't work 'long-term' - that's never what it sets out to do. Long-term suggests a 'final solution' - that particular narrative belongs to the margins. In fact, I'd probably say that the notion of a final solution is now more common to the hard-left that seeks some Communist or Socialist ideal that's analogous to Theology's idea of 'heaven'. As it stands in Britain, and has done for a long time, the most pragmatic, non- (and often anti-) ideological parties are all on the right. Thatcher may have knocked this idea, but the Tories are still the party of moving based on 'what needs to be done right now' rather than 'how can we move towards the ideal-case scenario'.
I think capitalism is much more diffuse, and diverse, than merely serving the ends of the 'ruling classes'. That form of leftist dialogue (itself horribly outmoded in the late-20th and early-21st century left thinkers and politicians) is inadequate to explain political dynamics as we live today. That is, capitalism serves the 'underclasses' with shiny things as much as it affords ivory backscratchers for the 'élite'.
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Originally Posted by demonrail666
Is the Left now a spent force within mainstream politics? I don't mean any kind of Left represented by New Labour or even Obama but a socialist Left. Or should we all just learn to love capitalism and be done with it?
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The left is not a spent force; otherwise you wouldn't be asking the question. It's only at the extremes of leftist thought that 'we' would seek to overthrow capitalism; which is to say, the more 'centrist' or middle-leftism today should act to curb
vulgar capitalism. I'm not wholly approving, but I think things like organic foods, fair trade and the carbon footprint movements within food show that the left
can and does still work towards
limiting capitalism. If it weren't for certain 'pop-anti-capitalism' (No Logo, Supersize Me etc) we wouldn't see McDonalds (in this country) making these paltry gestures towards 'eating healthily'. While I'm pretty convinced that the pop-anti-capitalism is an inadequate response to the situation, globally, as it stands, I do think they show that the left can still galvanise public opinion and affect changes to society.
It'll be interesting to see how Obama gets on with his healthcare reforms - again, this isn't the most striking leftist change that could potentially take place, but it does at least illustrate that the left, or leftist ideas (if we demarcate Obama's Democratic's 'leftism' more broadly), is still in action and capable of curbing vulgar capitalism.
However. I think Herr Rail is talking more broadly than Anglo-American politics; the international situation is a much more troublesome beast. And. I think he's talking about something more subtle than what I'm saying.