To: Neocon who wrote (1301 ) 11/9/1999 7:40:00 PM From: jbe Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Now, to a few more points, Neocon.The "misery index." I agree,there is no real way to calculate that. But I was not talking about "misery." I was talking about "unsettlement" = dislocation, disorientation, alienation, etc. A peasant working his land, the way his ancestors have done for centuries, may be cold, hungry and "miserable"; but he will not be "unsettled," "dislocated," "alienated.' If, however, he has arrived, along with lots of other displaced peasants, in an unfamiliar big city, and gotten thrown into a totally unfamiliar factory, doing totally unfamiliar work, living in a filthy barracks, etc., he probably IS going to feel not just miserable, but also "alienated", etc. only possible because of the latter. One might add that Nazism could never have emerged, if Bismarck had not created a united Germany in the 19th century. all the ideas that inspired 20th century labor movements & revolutions: everything from Marxism to anarchism to evolutionary socialism. It is all a question of emphasis, a question of whether one assigns more significance to the end than to the beginning. imposition of colonial rule was as significant -- and as productive of "dislocations" and "unsettlements" -- as the dismantling of colonial rule was later to be. globalization of revolutionary change, especially in the area of communications. But we won't really see the full flower of that until the 21st century. Perhaps our 20th century will just turn out to have been nothing more than a "transitional century."
