Keynes, monetarism and the death of capitalism

Here's an exchange on FaceBook, in late January, where I answer a pretty common objection to revolutionary Marxist perspectives.


Choppa Morph
If this system is Keynsian, I'm God Almighty. What all the monetarian butchers are doing (ref Kissinger and Pinochet as obvious examples) are trying to hold back the inevitable Keynsian/New Deal swing of the pendulum by stuffing their finge If this system is Keynsian, I'm God Almighty. What all the monetarian butchers are doing (ref Kissinger and Pinochet as obvious examples) are trying to hold back the inevitable Keynsian/New Deal swing of the pendulum by stuffing their fingers in the hole in the dyke. First wipe out as much capital as possible during the recession, then open the floodgates with huge public subsidies. The root cause (the capitalist system itself - social production being siphoned off into private profit and crippled irredeemably in the process) can't be tackled by either alternative. Good night, America, and good luck.

M B Choppa - I'm trying to make sense out of each of your statements, but I'm struggling... what is "the inevitable Keynsian[sic]/New Deal swing of the pendulum" in terms someone simple like me can understand? "First wipe out as much capital as possible during the recession, then open the floodgates with huge public subsidies." - is this your conspiracy theory as to what is going on, or is this your solution?

Choppa Morph The pendulum swing is comparable to all previous "stop-go" government policies, but in this case parallel to the gigantic swing between the paralysing laissez-faire monetarism of the early Great Depression and the massive state intervention of the New Deal of the recovery in the late Depression. Wiping out capital is what happened with the destruction of productive companies and farms after 1929 - when they had gone bust the fewer companies that were left had a lot more scope to make bigger profits (less competition and lots of demand to rebuild after the mayhem.
This is no conspiracy theory, it's blatantly obvious. It's like when astronomers were compelled to admit that the earth goes round the sun and not vice versa. Authority (the Church and State) refused to except any explanations except the ones they authorized. Today's star-gazing geo-centrists are the officially authorized academic, financial and institutional economists. Alternative explanations (notably Marxist ones - even the flabby pale pink diluted beyond recognition kind) are derided, denigrated, and prohibited. In many bourgeois countries (notably military dictatorships or other repressive regimes made in the USA) Marxists (especially revolutionary ones) advocating the replacement of a capitalist system with a non-capitalist system can land you in jail and get you tortured or even killed.
Given this kind of pressure to conform it's not surprising that a lot of people, like yourself, refuse to even contemplate a society on a different socio-economic foundation, even though history is shot through with such change. From isolated community to "civilized" (ie city-based, official- and priest-ridden) slavery to feudal principalities and kingdoms to bourgeois municipalities and eventually to bourgeois states and a capitalist world economy. The next great change (to non-capitalist society) is already under way but geo-centric people blindfolded and hooded by bourgeois propaganda about politics and economics can't see it or even conceptualize it.The Soviet Union, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, China and Cuba have all shown that a capitalist system can be overthrown and a non-capitalist society can be run for decades despite being poverty-stricken, war-torn, isolated, vilified, attacked, and oppressively managed.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Mr Moneybags in Wall Street. It tolls for thee.




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