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Living for Change; 2050 Will Be What We Make It
This article first appeared in "The Michigan Citizen" and is posted with the permission of the author. Also thanks to Eric Mar.
January 04, 2001
by Grace Lee Boggs <glbg@aol.com>
As we enter the 21st century, I believe we are in the early stages of the second American democratic revolution in my lifetime.
The first began 45 years ago with the Montgomery Bus Boycott triggered by the Emmett Till lynching. Now, in the wake of the Supreme Court coup awarding the presidency to Bush, Americans in all walks of life are questioning the legitimacy of the American political system and wondering how to create a "government of, by and for the people" to replace the "government of, by and for corporations" that we have now.
The revolution, as Karl Marx once wrote, sometimes needs the whip of the counter-revolution.
For an idea of what this revolution will involve, I recommend two recent books by Immanuel Wallerstein: The End of the World As We Know It and Utopistics (only 90 pages).
Wallerstein, a life-long student of world-historic systems and anti-systemic movements, has concluded that capitalism is in terminal crisis and "is unlikely to exist in 50 years."
The next 25-50 years, he says, will probably be "terrible ones in terms of human social relations." But they will also be "terribly exciting ones" because "in times of crisis and transition, the free-will factor becomes central. The world of 2050 will be what we make it.
This leaves full rein for our agency, for our commitment, and for our moral judgment. It also means that this period will be a time of terrible struggle, because the stakes are much higher than in so-called normal times."
"World-historic systems" are entities based on a particular division of labor, integrated production systems, a set of organizing principles and institutions, and a definite life span.
