<nettime> the west shifts to the left?

["Alex Foti" <alex.foti@gmail.com>]

dear netkeiners,

die zeit titles "Germany veers to the left" and cites polls suggesting
the share of germans willing to call themselves lefties is higher than
it's ever been since the 80s.

the economist titles "America turns left" and cites the increasingly
protectionist and anti-inegalitarian views views of obama, hillary and
edward.

what's going on? is there finally a hubble-shift in western
politics after the sad years of high bushism? sarkozy and merkel
notwithstanding? What are your views on this?

Other pieces of news that would call for your qualified opinions:

Goldman Sachs and other masters of the world lost their aura of
invincibility and incurred heavy losses, and so the demise of the
Washington Consensus is now complete. After last week's near meltdown
of financial markets (e.g. major transnational corporations could not
a bank willing to accept their commercial paper) re-regulation seems
to have become the name of the game. Will it extend to social and
environmental spheres?

The end of the Monroe Doctrine has been hailed by many of us as
a crucial historical development caused by the reawakening of
the America india y roja all over Latin America (but have Peru
and Mexico quelled the red tide?). In an interview in La Paz
published today, Toni Negri stated in an interview that geopolitical
multilateralism is now a reality and that the economic axis of
empire no longer runs on newyork-washington-hollywood but on the
brasilia-bruxelles-calcutta(kolkata) parallel. The first part of
the statement is undoubtedly true, but what about the second part:
don't you find it weird to juxtapose Brazil, Europe and India? Also,
consider that on the opposite side of the political spectrum, Kagan
from American Mars is now proposing to formerly dismissed European
Venus to join arms along with India and Japan to fight the autocratic
quasi-empires of Russia and China (whose relations are at their
warmest in 40 years) and supersede the UN with a Global Justice League
of Democratic States or something like that. Anybody willing to play
some global risiko? Where are heading after the failed US attempt at
global hegemony?

best ciaos,

lx




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