Berger on Moore
Mick Fealty links to a piece by John Berger on Fahrenheit 9/11.
Berger summarises the film's conclusions:
It declares that a political economy which creates colossally increasing wealth surrounded by disastrously increasing poverty, needs – in order to survive – a continual war with some invented foreign enemy to maintain its own internal order and security. It requires ceaseless war.
Note that Berger does not say why inequality of wealth would require constant wars. He proceeds:
Thus – fifteen years after the fall of Communism, decades after the declared End of History, one of the main theses of Marx’s interpretation of history, again becomes a debating point and a possible explanation of the catastrophes being lived.
This statement is particularly laughable when you consider that Marx offered no way of understanding Communism and certainly no way of understanding its fall. Because Marx said Communism would work and was proven as wrong as it is possible to be.
Maybe it's too late for John Berger, who is now quite an old man, to let go of his Marxist framework. But it is sad to reflect on the brilliant mind, and all the other minds as brilliant as Berger's, that were wasted on such stupid ideas.
Berger summarises the film's conclusions:
It declares that a political economy which creates colossally increasing wealth surrounded by disastrously increasing poverty, needs – in order to survive – a continual war with some invented foreign enemy to maintain its own internal order and security. It requires ceaseless war.
Note that Berger does not say why inequality of wealth would require constant wars. He proceeds:
Thus – fifteen years after the fall of Communism, decades after the declared End of History, one of the main theses of Marx’s interpretation of history, again becomes a debating point and a possible explanation of the catastrophes being lived.
This statement is particularly laughable when you consider that Marx offered no way of understanding Communism and certainly no way of understanding its fall. Because Marx said Communism would work and was proven as wrong as it is possible to be.
Maybe it's too late for John Berger, who is now quite an old man, to let go of his Marxist framework. But it is sad to reflect on the brilliant mind, and all the other minds as brilliant as Berger's, that were wasted on such stupid ideas.
posted by Peter at 15:29
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