Hegemony Ending: One of the Ends of the Long 20th Century, &
BRIEFLY NOTED: For 2022-11-16 We
FOCUS: Hegemony Ending: One of the Ends of the Long 20th Century:
The estimable Nick Gruen reminds me of this passage:
Brad DeLong: Slouching Towards Utopia: In 2003, the era in which the United States was the trusted leader of the global-north “Western alliance” came to an end. At the end of the 1980s, after the end of the Cold War, George H.W. Bush reassured the world that US military supremacy was benign because the US military would be deployed only in support of an overwhelming majority vote of a country’s people, or according to the will of the UN Security Council. The Clinton administration had changed this to “according to the will of the NATO alliance”; and then the George W. Bush administration had changed it to “more or less at random, according to false and misleadingly interpreted intelligence, against countries that do not possess nuclear weapons.” Countries took note…
“Trusted leader” is perhaps laying it on too thick.
But it is the case that from 1870 to 2010 first the United Kingdom and then the United States believed that it was a benevolent hegemon, guiding the world militarily, diplomatically, and economically toward an ever-brighter future of prosperity, peace, and civilization. On the military side, preventing the growth of an authoritarian or radical power that could upset the liberal order; on the diplomatic side, a concert of liberal powers or of united nations; and on the economic side globalization and trade. This meant that often the hegemonic power had to, or perceived itself as having to, submerge its own short-run national interests in order to keep the global international system on course.
All this fell apart in 2003, and more sale in 2017, as the United States shifted to acting much more like simply another normal great power—and an erratic and ill-governed one at that.
MUST-READ: Karl Marx in Perspective:
Branko Milanovic: The unexpected immortality of Karl Marx: Socrates and Jesus... would not have become worldwide... had it not been for people who propagated their thought... Plato, and... Paul.... [For]] Marx, that role was played by Friedrich Engels.... Had not Engels spent more than a decade putting Marx’s papers in order and producing, out of dispersed notes, two additional volumes of Das Capital, Marx’s fame would have ended at the point where it was in 1883. It would have been rather minimal....
Had there not been the Great War... Marx’s influence would have steadily gone down as the social-democrats in Germany moved toward reformism and “revisionism”. His picture would have probably been displayed among the historical “maîtres à penser” of the German social-democracy but not much of his influence would have remained.... But then the October Revolution and Lenin came (the second event), totally transforming the scene....
Then as the Comintern began to abandon its Eurocentrism and to get engaged into anti-imperialist struggles in the Third World, Marx’s influence expanded to the areas no one could have predicted it would (the third event). This decisive turn away from Eurocentrism and towards the Third World, including, of momentous importance, to China, transformed Marx from a German and European thinker into a global figure.... Who could have imagined that two bearded 19th century German exiles would on special occasions adorn the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing?
Responsibility. But with the success goes responsibility. As communism’s crimes became better known, and gradually increasingly laid at Marx’s door, and as communist regimes sputtered and their mournful and poorly educated ideologues regurgitated predictable phrases, Marx’s thought suffered an eclipse. And the question was asked: were Marx’s ideas, his “spirit”, responsible for many of the atrocities committed by the regimes that ruled in his name—perhaps his “ghosts”?... The ideas that were implemented in the 1920s Soviet Union, and after the Second World War in most of Eastern Europe and China were very much the ideas that Marx expressed in his writings even if his discussion of the post-capitalist society was scarce....
The influence did not end: the Chinese government’s decision in the early 1980s concerning how far to allow the growth of the private sector was justified by Marx’s true or apocryphal statement that workers’ exploitation was acceptable if the total number of employees hired by a capitalist does not exceed seven.... Even the violence which often accompanied communist revolutions or policies cannot be simply ascribed to historical contingencies or the non-democratic past of the countries that implemented Marxist ideology.... His was not exactly the language of reformism, conciliation, and “the long march through the institutions”....
Did we thus establish his responsibility and should we stop there? Not really. Because it is wrong to draw a direct line, or to entirely reject, an ideology because of its real-world consequences.... The ideas of the French Revolution of liberty, equality, and fraternity are not to be dismissed because that revolution quickly degenerated into reign of terror.... Marx’s ideas have indeed to be held responsible as much as the ideas of other economists and political scientists but that responsibility cannot obliterate the importance of his core ideas of human progress, equity, and revolution.
The rebel, the critic, and the analyst. There are two features of Marx’s that will, guarantee his influence.... The first is rebellion or revolution in its most primordial meaning of dramatic and thoroughgoing change.... Marx will always appeal to people who want to change the existing order of things.... So long as capitalism exists, Marx will be read as its most astute analyst. He identified two crucial and historically original features of capitalism: insatiable need for gain (“Accumulate, accumulate, this is Moses and all the prophets”), and the need for perpetual expansion to new territories or areas of production.... If capitalism ceases to exist, however, Marx will be read as its most prescient critic. So whether we believe that in another 200 years, capitalism will be with us or not, we can be sure that Marx will...
Very nicely done—although I still prefer my own:
And I would especially call to your attention: Jonathan Sperber: Karl Marx: A 19th-Century Life <https://archive.org/details/karlmarxnineteen0000sper>
Plus here are some ideas for a book that somebody someday should write:
One Image:
Oþer Things Þt Went Whizzing by…
Very Briefly Noted:
Quantian: ‘Dear Reddit: A friend of mine ran into some trouble with the law and was arrested Friday. The cops came around to my house and asked if we saw him Thursday night, but even though we had dinner together I denied knowing him 3 times. Now my friends are on my case about this. AITA?…
Paul Krugman: Nobody cares about Biden’s energy policy. Great!: ‘Biden’s Carrots-Not-Sticks Approach to Climate Policy Is Looking Pretty Good…
Martin Wolf: Central banks are right to act decisively: ‘The worst possibility would not be for disinflation to be done too slowly but for policymakers to give up too quickly…
Ben Collins: ‘I am blocked by a man named CatTurd2 on the internet, making it considerably harder for me to figure out the business strategy of the richest man in the world…
Aaron Rupar: 40 seconds from Trump's mess of a campaign launch speech that stuck with me…
Brooke Masters: How not to fire people: ‘Badly done lay-offs at Twitter and elsewhere could wound the tech sector for years to come…
¶s:
John Ganz: A Fascism and Far Right Reading List: ‘The Anatomy of Fascism - Robert Paxton…. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 - Stanley G. Payne…. The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe — Dylan Riley…. Fascists - Michael Mann…. Fascism (Oxford Readers) - Roger Griffin, ed….. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and their Influence on Nazi Ideology - Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke…. The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich - George L. Mosse…. The Politics of Cultural Despair - Fritz Stern…. Reactionary Modernism: Technology, culture, and politics in Weimar and the Third Reich - Jeffrey Herf…. Neither Left nor Right: Fascist Ideology in France and The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution - Zeev Sternhell…. Nationalism, Antisemitism, and Fascism in France - Michel Winock…. The Politics of Resentment: Shopkeeper Politics in Nineteenth Century France - Philip Nord…. A History of Fascism in France: From the First World War to the National Front - Chris Millington…. Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development - Alexander De Grand…. The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy 1919-1922 - Adrian Lyttelton…. The Fascist Ego: A Political Biography of Robert Brasillach - William R. Tucker…. The Appeal of Fascism: A Study of Intellectuals and Fascism, 1919-1945 - Alistair Hamilton…. Avant Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909–1939 - Mark Antliff…
Milky Eggs: What happened at Alameda Research: ‘If you want to read a poorly researched fluff piece about Sam Bankman-Fried, feel free to go to the New York Times(PDF). If you want to understand what happened at Alameda Research and how Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), Sam Trabucco, and Caroline Ellison incinerated over $20 billion dollars of fund profits and FTX user deposits, read this article.... Tentative[ly].... Alameda’s market-making edge decayed and they started punting longs.... Alameda was an incredibly disorganized, poorly run trading firm.... Sam Bankman-Fried was erratic, rash, and potentially incompetent.... Collusion between Alameda and FTX caused huge losses from algo failures.... Loans collateralized by FTT/SRM resulted in reflexive liquidations.... We don’t actually have a great idea of exactly how Alameda and FTX burned through as many billions of dollars as they did...
"This lost also mostly deals with Europe up to the Second World War. There’s much good writing on both the post-War far right and fascism in the Americas, but that will have to wait for another time."
I dunno, now seems like a better time than any? Maybe put one or two of Snyder's books in there. And while you're at it, you could do worse than to signal boost his campaign to fund Ukrainian anti-drone defenses; I've donated. "Sometimes things are very simple. If you can easily do something to halt a genocide, then you should." https://snyder.substack.com/p/help-stop-a-genocide
Central Bankers: Yes, inflation is politically more tonic than recession, but recent TIPS (Oh, Janet! Why won't you give us more intermediate tenors?? :( ) look to me like Power could pause for another month's data before raising rates again.