"This is an older article, I believe..."
>Yes, Dec '02, but still seems important, I was unaware of the evolution in the debate and how some left opinion-makers see themselves.
"This is not necessarily the root of America-bashing..."
>...?
Er, yes...that would be the largish bold letters at the top that I read right over, wouldn't it? Hmm...
When I said it wasn't necessarily the root of America-bashing I meant that that wasn't the thrust of the article. I do think that the idea of distributing immiserization to the Third World was more of a polemical idea than an advance of Marxist theory - it was controversial in Marxist circles at the time and has become a keystone more through longevity than through theoretical soundness.
In point of fact, America-bashing of at least the current European variety does have a long and storied Marxist origin. Jean-Francois Revel wrote an excellent treatment of this in his recent Anti-Americanism, a must-read on the topic. Highly recommended.