In addition, their attitudes have been inoculated by the cultural apparatus to think of terms like “socialism” or “Marx”, etc. as demonic and conflatable with the worst of the USSR. Some seek contemporary information, and most know what they see in the mass media TV and radio is ideologically contaminated, but when they do use e.g. the Internet, they tend to a tribal sort of selection that is apolitical and “social” that is mutually reassuring among their peers. If they do come upon current event issues, it is of the kind that are distorted to elicit paranoia and resignation, based on a great deal of misinformation and the results of outright disinformation. Mostly the confusion comes from a lack of having learned any critical thinking skills.

Never have there been young generations so ill-equipped to deal with crisis, let alone this uniquely significant of a crisis of the entire human race, largely brought about by the march of capitalism in its “grow or die” imperative.

Instead of being able to identify the forces that threaten to make miserable and ultimately shorten their lives, young people very often turn upon older people, poor people, homeless, etc., as scapegoats for their insecurity. They do not see the social origins of the plight of the less able, only that such people are somehow weak and undeserving of living. It isn’t usually blatant, more a dismissive patronizing attitude that bespeaks a collective desire to support social culling. Little do they know that they are only steps away from themselves being culled.

These are the people who do the work, anywhere from the McJobs to the minions of bureaucracy and corporate predation. Even when they lose their job in this uncertain environment, they gradually scale down, living with others, scrambling for handouts and temp jobs, etc., until they become among the homeless they formerly held in contempt. I’ve seen too many people in their late 20s and early 30s who are already burnt out from throwing in their lot with their capitalist masters, so that their lives just shrink more and more, and any talk about social change, about socialism, seems to them like the ravings of a madman.

In sum, Ian, despite your thoughtful words, the very people who are still in a position to do something about this crisis of capitalism, are the least able and prepared, even if it means their long suffering unto a premature death. How do we get from ‘preaching to the choir’ on sites such as this to reaching these young people? This ain’t the 60s, idealism or even the recognition that something is badly wrong, is largely missing. They live lives of “the minimal self” as Christopher Lasch famously warned. Look up on the Web the Turnbull essay on the Ik tribe to see what is coming in the face of our ‘all against all’ society engendered by capitalism. Ian, how do we reach these hapless souls? I want my e-mail unhidden; it is: vicjoe [at] shaw [dot] ca. Thoughtful comments only, please.

As is already clear from the US Iraq occupation, ruling classes, (Bush, Cheney et al but with only weak opposition from the Democrats) will increasingly focus on controlling scarcer oil reserves in order to obtain strategic advantages vis a vis the other capitalist powers. This will be accompanied by chauvanist appeals to the general population to support wars to “protect our oil” and, again as we have already seen, erosion of democratic rights to suppress opponents.