The important takeaways from Kotkin’s work are these three basic points: 1) class relations in developed societies are increasingly resembling those in traditional (feudal), early capitalist or “Third World” societies; 2) the oligarchs of the new high-tech industries and financial institutions have replaced the old bourgeoisie as the […]
It’s interesting how class divisions in the US have become so wide that even the right-wing has started to pay attention, which was previously unheard of in the US. Trump got elected on an anti-neoliberal platform. Tucker Carlson often sounds like Bernie Sanders or even Noam Chomsky in […]
Joel Kotkin describes how the “California model” is being applied to the entire world. Kotkin’s analysis is the natural successor to Burnham’s “managerial revolution” thesis.
Joel Kotkin is one of the very best class theorists out there today. Kotkin’s analysis of the techno-oligarch/new clerisy alliance within a framework of metaphorical “neo-feudal” class relations is the natural update of James Burnham’s managerial revolution theory. Add to that Paul Fussell’s analysis of the traditional class […]
Wow. Rising actually interviewed Joel Kotkin. I’m impressed.
This is an interesting debate about the degree to which the US will remain the world’s leading power in the future. The participants are all far more establishmentarian than I am (who isn’t?). What I think the actual trends show on this question is that while the US […]
Kotkin’s class analysis, his recognition that progressives are just as bad on class issues as conservatives, and his stating the obvious fact that racial demagoguery is a bad idea are all spot on. However, he seems to retreat into a naive civic nationalism that’s likely to prove increasingly […]
Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson
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