tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post1457679908444323761..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Be The Change, Be The Difference (And Other Mantras)Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-51417475461638981462011-03-10T06:31:28.325-08:002011-03-10T06:31:28.325-08:00No, wease, by saying "big talk, care to back ...No, wease, by saying "big talk, care to back it up" I was not requesting a rehearsal of the basic state of plutocracy knowledge of which is clearly indicated in pretty much every political comment I publish here. No, wease, by saying "big talk, care to back it up" right after quoting you saying <i>"lest we seek to upset older and deeper orders which are not to be changed"</i> I am asking you to indicate just what you are presumably actually substantially <i>doing</i> that upsets the inequitable order of things. Keyboard Kommandos promulgating Dem-Repug equivalency theses because they don't have the patience or discipline for the heart-breaking slow-paced path of reform via activism and policy in the context of partisan stakeholder politics don't impress me. By the way, there are a diversity of stakeholders in the world -- including assholes, including incredibly rich greedheads, incredibly organized reactionaries, incredibly stupid mobs of scared dimwits. Do you just believe in incarcerating them, or putting them up against the wall, pretending they don't exist? Politics accommodates, compromises, reforms in the face of diversity. This isn't ethics or aesthetics, where you can afford to pretend it's my way or the highway. Also, talk is cheap. If you've joined a revolutionary cell because you find the Dems too hopelessly reactionary, then you have earned your big dramatic declarations, at least your ass is on the line (I happen to disagree that such a path will get the world closer to where the revolutionary she wants it to be, but I admire those whose convictions cash out in substance)? That's what I mean by back it up. I get the Big Picture. I teach several variations of The Big Picture to college students by the thousands. Getting from here to there without becoming totally demoralized in the process is what is under discussion. Capitulationists who think declaring a plague on both your houses and thereby enable Republican victories constitutes a form of holier-than-thou activism (Americans are so spoiled they are forever declaring their passive consumptions to be profoundly active) don't productions) don't impress me much, but they do inspire a well-earned well-aimed measure of disgust.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-79167572364230372712011-03-10T05:32:05.314-08:002011-03-10T05:32:05.314-08:00Big talk, care to back it up?
You know full well ...<i>Big talk, care to back it up?</i><br /><br />You know full well that income and wealth disparities in this country between the top 1% and everyone else have been unacceptable for a century and have been getting worse all the time. <br /><br />http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html<br /><br />This is as it has been in this crony capitalist, banana republic known as the USA since its founding and this is the way it will be until we revolt. Actually, a non-violent revolt in this country would be incredibly easy. If enough Americans decided not to go to work, not to consume, and not to participate, the whole thing would blow up. What we'd get after that, I don't know, but the wealthy and elite wouldn't be wealthy and elite anymore. <br /><br />For now, though, if you're a greedy banker like Blankfein or a grandfatherly industrialist with his hand in the till like Buffett, life is very, very good under Obama.<br /><br />It kind of sucks for me.Impertinent Weaselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16641434724740469395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-4208155211919795092011-03-09T21:10:22.118-08:002011-03-09T21:10:22.118-08:00lest we seek to upset older and deeper orders whic...<i>lest we seek to upset older and deeper orders which are not to be changed</i><br /><br />Big talk, care to back it up?Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-79465798252897587522011-03-09T20:01:03.371-08:002011-03-09T20:01:03.371-08:00To my way of thinking, there may be many differenc...To my way of thinking, there may be many differences between Democrats and Republicans, but there's one thing you can count on with both parties -- fat-cat, wealthy elites will remain wealthy and elite no matter who is in the White House. There will be no change tolerated on that score, but everything else is fair game, so have at it you scamps!<br /><br />From this perspective, a very cynical person might believe that the eternal tug-of-war of partisan politics is meant to keep the body politic occupied. Occupied, lest we seek to upset older and deeper orders which are not to be changed. <br /><br />Or something.<br /><br />Anyway, you're not alone Martin. Tireless Obama supporter Matt Damon had some choice words to say about the President yesterday. I think he's as baffled by Obama as you are. <br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/08/matt-damon-obama-has-roll_n_832795.htmlImpertinent Weaselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16641434724740469395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-32019125271377119822011-03-09T18:50:37.956-08:002011-03-09T18:50:37.956-08:00Well, when you speak of disappointment, I definite...Well, when you speak of disappointment, I definitely hear you. I went to jail back in my Queer Nation/Atlanta days battling for queer rights only some of which are beginning to find the least purchase at the level of employment anti-discrimination policy and such -- and all this long years after majorities had come round to the sense of the modest things we were struggling for (don't get me started on the radical things truer still to my heart). The pace by which reform confers progress is slower by far than the pace by which argument confers conviction. No real activist is stranger to drinking the bitter cup. That's the whole reason we have to remind one another to keep our eyes on the prize. That said, politicians aren't activists, they compromise because they are supposed to -- it is up to the education, agitation, and organization of citizens to prepare the terrain that ensures compromises still contribute to the substance of progress rather than reaction. To despair is only natural, but the project of sustainable consensual secular democratic polyculture is not a natural one, and we none of us have the room to despair for long. Republicans are criminally dismantling workplace democracy even as we speak -- we need to be going to the barricades with the allies we have, warts and all, this is no time for despair at Democrats but of rage at Republicans. We can keep replacing the worse Democrats with better ones as we go -- but this is a time for picking sides and at such times you pick a side or a side is picked for you. Scientific, moral, ethical, aesthetic, political, commercial domains all have their separate standards of clarity -- to the extent that this is a moment of political clarity, don't get it muddled in the standards more proper to subjective aesthetics or universalizing ethics or commercial competitiveness or scientific instrumental optimality or what have you. Those who see clearly can't let their political hopes and energies get eroded by the misappropriation to politics of standards and aspirations suited to other domains. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time, we have to reconcile hopes and histories, we have to see today in both short term and longer term contexts. As Arendt said, politics are not the nursery.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-34574281060538624792011-03-09T17:49:36.164-08:002011-03-09T17:49:36.164-08:00What progressive candidates must realize is that w...What progressive candidates must realize is that when they acquiesce on some issue, they aren't just losing a small battle. On aggregate, they are slowly eroding the hope and excitement of their supporters, and surrendering the war.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-17676027878942876812011-03-09T17:43:31.527-08:002011-03-09T17:43:31.527-08:00Do you really think electing Republicans or acquie...<em>Do you really think electing Republicans or acquiescing to their election through passivity is empowering to your issues in some sense?</em><br /><br />No, I'm just extremely disappointed and kind of exhausted, really.<br /><br /><em>More, and better, Democrats, hell yes that's substantial.</em><br /><br />It's substantial if you can make it happen, but there hasn't been a more progressive president than Obama in the last 30 years, and many progressive are palpably disgusted by much of what he's done.<br /><br /><em>Still, the Presidency is the Presidency, it is a vector of change...</em><br /><br />An interesting analogy, since a vector has a direction and a speed. In what direction are we going right now, and at what speed?adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.com