I'll not provide you references, but perhaps a lead.
Most writers produce a short story that they then expand into a tome.
I reckon that Marx wrote a 'short story' before his roach killer.
When studying Economics one of our tutors produced a very terse and
very interesting paper by Marx, in which he expounded on the 'Capital
v Labour' ratio.
I am of the firm opinion that Marx thought of 'Capital' as 'Machinery'
- well physical and useful things, rather than shares in dubious companies
He was yakking on in this paper about what happens when you have a
heck of a lot of machinery and by comparison, labour is pretty scarce.
Like you press a button and out pops a Jaguar, but you don't like it
so you press another button and get a BMW (sadly I am poor on the
names of USA domestic cars). However the general idea is that it is a
'land of plenty'
When you have a lot of machinery, button pushers become a rare commodity.
With application to Iraq, well they are living in an 'uncertain
environment', also pretty deprived of things that they understand -
like they suddenly have no electricity.
A classic environment for a new Mussolini, Hitler, Poujade, or Moseley
to rise to the top - in lesser terms/extremes a De Gaulle, Ataturk,
Thatcher or Nixon.
When things are f**ked, democracy goes out of the window.
People just want certainty - like 'No snipers in this area'
Political 'development' (aka tolerance) is only possible in a stable
and well nourished environment.
The word 'socialism' has been so long abused, that it is either
perjoritive or a banner for nutters.
What I suspect Marx meant by the 'Millenium' was something like:
The 'Integrated Society'
Not a chance of political development in Iraq - the only hope is to
stick in a 'South American' style dictator and back him to the hilt.
When he becomes a liability, give him a safe retirement
As a digression, I am just wondering what one should do about that
town where 'insurgents'(?) stole about 1000 police uniforms and took
over the police barracks.
I am half inclined to bomb them with supplies
- medical kit first
- followed by more police uniforms, food, radios and light ammunition
It would take about a week to establish a 'cargo cult'
By which time US trucks could safely drive up half way and hand over
to 'local' drivers
In a month one could have 'insurgents'(?) minding US engineers
bringing in heavy water pumping and electrical generating equipment by
road.
In two months one could have the local 'Insurgent'(?) General - or
future Iraqi senator, calling in US air support to zap people he is
not fond of.
An unobtrusive cargo cult might sort out this mess. |
