Brian Becker Imperialism, however, isn’t fundamentally an ideological program or project.It is a global economic system that compels the banks and corporations to dominate every piece of potential real estate for the benefit of those same entities. |
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Karl Johann Kautsky ( 1854 –1938) was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of Marxism." Following the war, Kautsky was an outspoken critic of the Bolshevik Revolution and its excesses, engaging in polemics with V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky on the nature of the Soviet state. Kautsky is remembered, in addition to his anti-Bolshevik polemics, for his editing and publication of Marx's Capital, Volume IV (usually published as "Theories of Surplus Value").
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So are we living an an age of ultra-imperialism?
I think we are, but I don't think it matters whether it is a progression of capitalism to it's logical conclusion or if it is the result of a 'special policy'.
How amazing is it that people sat around working out these theories?
Unsure what the mutual disdain was about:
Kautsky ... castigated Lenin in his 1934 work Marxism and Bolshevism: Democracy and Dictatorship: "The Bolsheviki under Lenin's leadership, however, succeeded in capturing control of the armed forces in Petrograd and later in Moscow and thus laid the foundation for a new dictatorship in place of the old Czarist dictatorship."
Both Lenin and Trotsky, however, defended the Bolshevik Revolution as a legitimate and historic social upheaval akin to the French Revolution, casting themselves and the Bolsheviks in the role of the Jacobins, and viewing the "opportunism" of Kautsky and similar figures as a function of "social bribery" rooted in their increasing intimacy with the privileged classes. [wikipedia]
Even though I have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm going to side with Lenin and Trotsy, because Lenin got past the theorising and actually got the job done.
Why do these guys take this stuff so seriously?
What's wrong with trying something just to see if it works, without over-thinking it or expecting it to be some absolute solution?
So is it possible to escape 'imperialism'?
To my way of thinking, it's impossible. All you can change is the rulers and the rules.
Trying to picture global communism but it's impossible for me to imagine.
What would happen?
Wouldn't it still be the same thing, in that nations would still be vying for resources, profit, territory, military supremacy ... etc?
The articles are worthwhile looking at. Might have to revisit the 'Imperialism Highest Stage ...' article (Source - DSP - here) because my concentration and ability to take things in is fairly limited. LOL
P.S. Thought about it some more doing the dishes ... I'm with Lenin again.
It's a progression: imperialism is the final stage of capitalism.
The very nature of capitalism is MORE, MORE, MORE ... more stuff, more consumption, more sales, more profits, more markets ... and, as cartels and monopolies grow out of that, doesn't that just feed into the MORE, and MORE, and MORE nature of the beast (only the MORE is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer powerful players) ... so it's a cycle that feeds on itself to a logical conclusion: concentration and control.
After bashing that out, I'm having second thoughts ... what if I'm wrong? LOL.
Nope, I'm sticking with that.
P.S. Thought about it some more doing the dishes ... I'm with Lenin again.
It's a progression: imperialism is the final stage of capitalism.
The very nature of capitalism is MORE, MORE, MORE ... more stuff, more consumption, more sales, more profits, more markets ... and, as cartels and monopolies grow out of that, doesn't that just feed into the MORE, and MORE, and MORE nature of the beast (only the MORE is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer powerful players) ... so it's a cycle that feeds on itself to a logical conclusion: concentration and control.
After bashing that out, I'm having second thoughts ... what if I'm wrong? LOL.
Nope, I'm sticking with that.
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