Comments on: An Exaggerated Dichotomy: A Reply to Sheri Berman

By: Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:10:17 +0000

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=1417

Another response to Berman written by Joanne Barkan

By: inTransience

inTransience — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:07:46 +0000

Outside of core political and economic stances, the socialist–yes, whichever way you lean on that—movement should be launching itself off of the egalitarian concepts of sustainable living and so-called environmental movement that’s been shaping for a long time now. For Sheri Berman to bluntly suggest that there hasnt been alternative methods offered for empowering socialism in the 20th century is bothersome. Folks working within National Parks and the Forest Service have always had a taste of smaller, more tightknit social concepts where working and living together, eating the same local food, and living at a general level of acknowledgement has become not only enjoyable but practical. Murray Bookchin demonstrates it perfectly in Social Ecology: The Dissolution of Hierarchies. A green movement will be swallowed by Capitalism for what revenue can be generated off of it, spawning whats foreseeable as worse than neo-liberalism, Socialism will never function as its meant to be with the capitalist, bronze-age notion that “everything is a matter of supply and demand.” As far as social democracy goes, good luck in that transition phase between social democracy and democractic socialism without destroying what it was originally about and Capitalism having another real good laugh about it.

By: A Reply to David Duhalde From Professor Sheri Berman | The Activist

A Reply to David Duhalde From Professor Sheri Berman | The Activist — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:39:01 +0000

[...] like to reply to David Duhalde’s thoughtful and insightful piece in The Activist. I appreciate the time he took to engage with my arguments. Since what [...]

By: Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:30:59 +0000

It largely comes from the betrayal of the parties of Socal Democracy after before the Great War I believe. Lenin’s Communist movement was a return to the language of the manifesto and a response to the warmongering and nationalism of the “parties of the working class”. Since then post-capitalists haven’t associated with the term, even those that reject Leninism. After decades of Stalinism, there is a case to be made that no one in their right mind would still associate themselves publically with the term “Communist”—- perhaps “Social Proletocrats” would fit

By: Adrian Bleifuss Prados

Adrian Bleifuss Prados — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:17:28 +0000

I also wanna endorse David’s point about the “exaggerated dichotomy.” Michael Harrington would sometimes call himself a social democrat when he wanted to sound a bit more respectable. Paul Berman will sometimes call himself a socialist when he wants to pink up his image. The two terms were once used largely interchangeably. Sometimes “social democrat” is hurled as a slur, sometimes it’s a euphemism, sometimes it’s a synonym. It all depends on the period and the context. I think the problem stems from a crude translation of a 19th-century German label into other languages.

By: Peter Frase

Peter Frase — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:10:39 +0000

I’m glad to see that someone took on Berman’s weird article. This is a good job of critique. I’d note, though, that Berman perpetuates a common misconception about Bernstein. I don’t think his version of “reformism” should be interpreted as an argument that capitalism is eternal and we can only make it more humane. In my reading, Evolutionary Socialism argues that small reforms could eventually lead to a transition out of capitalism, so Kautsky and Lenin’s idea of sudden, clean-break seizure of power is unnecessary. The conversion of social democracy into a doctrine of “capitalism with a human face” was a later innovation. (I’d point to C.A.R. Crosland as the key figure here.) Also, I totally agree with Adrian about Dissent.

By: Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:25:10 +0000

I would like to note that “corporate globalization” has not exactly taken place in China and Vietnam. In Vietnam the state controls most of the finance sector and carefully regulates capital. China, despite its SEZs, still has nationalized commanding heights and has been interventionist in its relation with capital.

It’s no wonder that these countries– like many of the East Asian tigers before them that have been able to use harness capital’s power as a tool for boosting productive forces have done so with public intervention and not by following neoliberal orthodoxy.

I can’t see anywhere besides Ireland where neoliberalist dogma has shown any vibrancy.

By: Adrian Bleifuss Prados

Adrian Bleifuss Prados — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:00:29 +0000

David's very gentle criticisms are fair-to-understated.

I think it's important to see this piece in the context of the publication in which it appeared. While Dissent has put out a lot of fun and important stuff over the years (and yes, I have read decades of back issues), the magazine is obviously pathologically obsessed with the question of just how radical the "democratic left" should be. It has been obsessed with this question for over a half century and Berman is now simply adding her own careful calibrations to those already narrow parameters and exacting standards.

Dissentnik Michael Walzer is probably not at all embarrassed that his most memorable contribution in the Bush era was his scolding indictment of a million straw men, "Can there be a Decent Left?" an essay written as if those little Stalinist sects and Noam Chomsky were really the obstacles to progressive change in America (not that I would lump Noam Chomsky in with any kooky sect, though Walzer probably would). As James Weinstein once said in response to a similar post-9/11 display of "decentism" from Todd Gitlin, we should all shut up and thank those sectarian nuts for the good work they do in getting the demo permits.

I'm not saying Sheri Berman is guilty of Walzer's nonsense, but I'm just getting some anti-Dissent bile out of my system.

By: Chris Maisano

Chris Maisano — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:04:33 +0000

I was totally going to respond to this article, but you beat me to the punch! OK, let me read it over now.