Re: GLOBAL KEYNESIANISM

R.J. Barendse,

First, much to the consternation of some of my closest comrades, I have
long held a position in support of using the capitalist state to improve
the lives of people here and now. I am certain I held this point of view
in January of 1999 and for several years before that. If I criticized you
then it is because of the position you articulated not because I have been
inconsistent.

Second, the idea that capitalism somehow turned awful in the 20th century
is revisionism. Capitalism only developed the productive forces to carry
out mass murder on an astronomical scale in the 20th century, but the
system has always depended on murder and slavery (it just took longer to
wipe out the American Indian, albeit biological warfare helped to speed
things up a bit). There was no time in capitalism's history that it
resembled its ideological vision.

Andrew Austin
Knoxville, TN