The Left’s Failure: Post-Newtown, Connecticut « alex felipe: ramblings

Without a strong and unified Left, the economic crisis of the 70s brought about the reemergence of a more ruthless form of capitalism that had lay dormant since Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Real wages went on a decline, and job security dramatically decreased.

It was then that the mental health issues that were already an inherent part of the capitalist system was exacerbated.

Mass shootings in America became commonplace. Using Time magazines’ list, there was one in both the 60s and 70s. In the “greed is good” 80s they became part of the new normal. From Mother Jones magazines’ list of mass shootings in the US since 1982 there were eight in the 80s, twenty-three in the 90s, and twenty-four from 2000 to 2011.

The 80s also gave rise to a series of financial bubbles followed by increasingly worsening crises until the major collapse of 2007-08–a crisis that we are still mired in, and one that threatens to grow worse, much worse.

After 2008 gun ownership sharply rose, and with the threat of an even greater collapse on the horizon, this year we saw seven horrific acts of mass shootings.

Why is the Left not talking about how these narratives are interwoven together as a part of the fabric of our social system?

It is as if we are afraid of our own hard won lessons: that all our issues are tied together, that far from them being intersections–which imply independent issues that meet at certain points–that in reality the critical social problems we face today, have their roots within the capitalist system itself.

via alexfelipe.wordpress.com