<< So, yes, the felt oppressions of racism, sexism, etc. are still there
--though
perhaps in some ways "softened"-- but it sure seems to me that the
destructive
forces (dark side) of capitalism has really reared its ugly head and thus
THAT
can be -CAN be-- a focal point around which the Movement(s) and the young
could unite. That, of course, will take alot of consciousness-raising, but
the lords of capital seem to be doing a pretty good job of it. >>
I assume you are talking about now (not the Viet Nam war period) and the USA.
There are surely many people who feel that there are huge injustices in the
"system", that the distribution of wealth becomes more and more inequitable,
that environmental destruction is more threatening, that nuclear proliferation
endangers us etc. but I have not really heard anyone these days offering any
viable alternatives. How can you raise consciousness about an "evil" if you
cannot show at what point the functioning of this evil could be altered to
produce a better society. This cannot be abstract. In the 60's we were aware
that capitalism had created a good life for the workers in most capitalist
countries. And the workers definitely knew it and supported the system. No
one was able to offer economic alternatives at that time. (Of course, there
were plenty of people who looked to the East without really noticing what was
going on there and called the real existing communist countries a viable
alternative.) (I was in Germany, so I know what the situation was there in the
60's and how these questions were discussed. Perhaps it was somewhat
different in the USA.) It seems all we have are possible reforms within
capitalism to try to mitigate the worst outrages. So should consciousness
raising deal with teaching people how to improve their position within the
capitalist whole? Or do you have another idea?
I don't see that the lords of capitalism are doing a good job of showing us
how to get rid of capitalism. Please explain this.