Capitalism Sucks

This is a comment by Mikus on a thread on Libcom about decadence theory. If you want context, follow this link:

http://libcom.org/forums/thought/general-discussion-decadence-theory-17092007

I thought this post was hilarious, whether or not it's fair to the ICC's notion of decadence.
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As far as decadence theory goes, my general impression is that it's a poor attempt to transform a mere phrase into an actual periodization of capitalism. And then when this periodization is questioned, the supporters of the theory go back to using it as a mere phrase.

I could talk about something like, suckiness theory. And I could say "capitalism sucks." And then I could talk about how it sucked more and more over time. And it very well may continue to suck. And how it in fact is necessary that capitalism sucks. And that if humanity doesn't want to live in a sucky society, it has to overthrow that society. And then if someone says "I don't see any evidence that capitalism sucks" I can say, "look at the last 100 years -- WWI, WWII, millions dead -- that objectively sucks." And then I could say that anyone who doesn't think that capitalism sucks, and who doesn't support my suckiness theory, isn't a Marxist. And that all Marxists of the last 100 years have contended that capitalism sucks, and that this suckiness puts armed revolution on the agenda.

This sounds about like what the ICC has done with decadence theory. They have turned a word used to describe one's taste into an attempted periodization. It just doesn't work out that well. If they kept it as a word of taste, and said that capitalism was decadent just in the normal coloquial sense, I wouldn't really disagree (although I think the term is a bit old-fashioned myself -- I'd probably say that capitalism just sucks). I just think that turning it into a real theory and making it a central tenet by which one can tell who is and is not a real Marxist is silly and pretends to say more than it actually does.

Mike