Re: Re: lumps in the gravy -- uneveness and interimperialist war

Pat Gunning wrote:

>
>I tend to think that my children and grandchildren will be living on a
>different planet, perhaps in a different solar system or part of the
>universe, by the time the "inter-imperialist war," whatever that is,
>arrives. Probably, however, they will be living in a different reality.
>Where are the mighty empires today? In Yugoslavia, Iraq, North Korea?
>--
>Pat Gunning, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
>Web pages on Subjectivism, Democracy, Taiwan, Ludwig von Mises,
>Austrian Economics, and my University Classes
>http://www2.cybercities.com/g/gunning/welcome.htm
>http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/barclay/212/welcome.htm

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1) "'inter-imperialist war,' whatever that is," ???    Well, let's see, what
was World War I? The forces of democracy led by Britain against the demonic
horde descendants of Atilla the Hun? Or maybe it was about imperialist
powers fighting over markets, raw materials, access to cheap labor, land,
etc. This is not a very hard concept to understand.  And one could argue
that there were aspects of World War II that also related to

"WAR"   "BETWEEN"    "IMPERIALISTS"  which could be roughly translated into:

"INTER-"     "IMPERIALIST"    "WAR"   (not too complicated a concept here)

---
And there are major aspects of inter-imperialist rivalry in the Iran-Iraq
War, the current conflict in Algeria, the India/Pakistan conflict, the
Burundi-Rwanda catastrophe, the Angola war, and most conflicts in the Middle
East.  They become inter-imperialist war when the local
proxies/puppets/representatives begin to draw in their more powerful
sponsors.  For example, if one of the larger powers bombs one of the
opposing smaller proxy powers, but accidentally directly attacks one of the
opposing  larger powers.  Thank goodness this won't happen in the current
NATO bombing of Belgrade!

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2) Then there's this part of the quote:

"I tend to think that my children and grandchildren will be living on a
different planet, perhaps in a different solar system or part of the
universe, by the time the "inter-imperialist war," whatever that is,
arrives."

I guess space travel is going to develop VERY RAPIDLY in the next fifty or
100 years. Or Pat Gunning expects his descendants to live a VERY LONG
TIME!!!   Seriously, this type of hyperbole masks a very questionable
assumption.  Are we at the end of history? The history of class society is
the history of wars. Capitalist society has produced the most intense wars,
and imperialist capitalism has produced the most intense of the intense. How
FORTUNATE we are to live in the era when ALL OF THIS  IS FINALLY STOPPED,
once and for all!  (Is there a concept called: "temporo-centrism?")
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 3) Finally, we have this quote: "Where are the mighty empires today? In
Yugoslavia, Iraq, North Korea?"
Well, what I like most about WSN, is that so many of the writers, even those
I disagree with, usually draw on history to develop their arguments, in
contrast to the ahistorical philosophizing that social scientists sometimes
practice.  So, let's see now. In 1922, where were the mighty empires?
Germany was shattered, physically and economically. Bye-bye to the Ottoman
Empire. Japan wasn't much of a world force. The USSR was devastated by the
civil war provoked, funded, and armed by Western European capitalist
nations. Britain, France, Italy were still powers, but their empires were
waning rapidly. The U.S. stood alone, as "THE WORLD'S ONLY SUPER-POWER".  It
only took 15 years (remember the Reagan-Mondale presidential race? That was
fifteen years ago. The Iranian Hostage Crisis was 19 years ago...)-- it took
only 15 years for "mighty empires" to be reconstructed.  Add to this the
wild card of unbelievable impoverishment today in the so-called "Third
World" and the easy access to weapons of mass destruction, and it seems
doubtful that we are at the end of history.

But there are those who insist that we have entered an era of no more major
wars. Why? Because capitalism has found a way to make its "Pyramid Scheme"
meet the needs of all the people? Because capitalism has found a way to
develop a politics and culture that is not based on conflict? Because we
have only prosperity and justice (the conditions for peace) to look forward
to?

Pat Gunning writes, of his children and grandchildren:

        " Probably, however, they will be living in a different reality."

It sounds like some people are living in a different reality right now.

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Alan Spector
Professor of Sociology
Purdue University Calumet