Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 17:08:19 +0100
To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu (world-system network)
From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore)
Subject: re: Implications of the "Business-As-Usual" Scenario (was: `please	 forward')

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4/28/98, PAT.LAUDERDALE@ASU.Edu wrote:
>Your argument is interesting, however, I doubt that you need the "Dark
>Ages" strawperson/strawthing.  If you examine history written by people
>such as Vine Deloria, Jr. or James Riding In, you will find that the Dark
>Ages were quite Light.  Sensational depictions of murders, wars and
>plagues are the cosmetic halloween masks of old mainstream history---used
>to frighten us in contemporary times or to minimize current problems.
>>From that old historical view, Druids were atavistic, yet AIDS or cancer,
>or any new plague will be solved via modern technology.
>
>Incidentally, as you imply, the "Dark Ages" also seem to have been quite
>Light for indigenous peoples, especially for those who had not been
>colonized.  But, of course, this issue is very complex.
>
>In general, this is not to say that the 20th century is the best of times,
>or the worst of times.  And, the same goes for the ostensible "Dark" Ages.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Pat gives us a most remarkable thesis indeed.

First of all, he seems to be accepting the hypothesis, without actually
ackowledging the fact, that the endgame of of capitalism is likely to be a
return to a neo-feudalism, or Dark Ages.

This would be a rather extreme degree of agreement with myself and with
Sviatoslav Zabelin, quite counter to the points of view typical on this
list, and it might be helpful for Pat to be more explicit about his stand
on this.  As stated his post _seems to be a _disagreement, rather than a
95% (so to speak) _agreement with our analysis.

Second, he refers to such a dark-ages-scenario as a "strawthing" and goes
on to describe the Dark Ages as being "quite Light".

In fact, I agree with him that `old mainstream history' is mainly
propaganda as regards the Dark Ages, but that doesn't mean they are
something it would desirable to return to, nor that a post-capitalist
version would be desirable.

The main characteristic of the Dark Ages, from my perspective, was that it
was a Dark Ages of thought - under the brutal thumb of a harsh theocracy,
which had no qualms about massacring ideological dissenters (eg.
Albigensian and other `heresies').

The current elite has a similar morality, except that ideology plays no
real role: those whose societies do not generate sufficient elite profits
are the ones exterminated, as in East Timor, American Old West, Sub-Saharan
Africa, etc, and sometimes they are labelled "marxist" or "heathens" and
sometimes not, depending on other circumstances.

rkm