I think Jerome's recognition of the Anglo Disease is relevant. But I don't it's exclusively a capitalist problem - more about a peculiarly pig-headed self-serving ignorance which the Anglo countries have made their own, and which has been operating for much longer than the current disaster-in-making.

Class is possibly the strongest determinant. People are either on top, desperately trying to get on top, or being screwed by those on top. Capitalism turns this into a rather psychotic artform, but it's not possible for a culture to function intelligently as long as there are these kinds of horizontal fault-lines running through the population.

Change is only going to come by distracting people from their silly class-based games and creating a sense of personal participation which is actively exciting. People desperately want to feel a part of something which is more fulfilling than office politics and a useless and irrelevant right to vote.

The Right does well because it makes politics personal - not abstract, or issue based, but directly participatory. The sense of participation is a lie, but in politics people seem to want that feeling more than almost anything.

Which is why it's not enough to critique the Anglo Disease - there has to be an alternative which is easy to understand, easy to get involved with, and which has both personal and political influence.