tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post8645448963425019282..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: And Now A Little Love for the HatersDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-41227139150328936892010-06-25T17:09:58.508-07:002010-06-25T17:09:58.508-07:00RCD, I bet Zinn would have agreed with Hedges. He ...RCD, I bet Zinn would have agreed with Hedges. He had nothing good to say about Obama at the one year mark. On voting, he suggested doing it because of the pragmatic benefit of getting the lesser of the two evils but advised not focusing one's energies on the process. Vote on election day, but know the struggle continue outside of the political process regardless.Summerspeakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07870660699983182559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-17720983391270608442010-06-25T13:10:29.852-07:002010-06-25T13:10:29.852-07:00If one's sociopolitical aspirations and analys...If one's sociopolitical aspirations and analyses are more radical than those of the political platforms and welcome constituencies of America's actually constituted political parties, you can either treat partisan politics as a reformist pathway in the direction of your aspirations while struggling as well within the party that best reflects that direction to adopt a platform closer still to your more radical terms, or you can treat such partisan politics as an insurmountable barrier of incumbency, corruption, and falsehood to your aspirations leading you to revolutionary remedies instead.<br /><br />However disappointed and frustrated you may be at actual partisan and reformist outcomes, as a person like me whose left-wing convictions are more radical than constituted parties and available reformism can accommodate, if you nonetheless remain wedded to the heartbreaking path of that reformism as the left wing of the possible and continue to vote for More, and Better Democrats, pushing and pushing and pushing all the while from the left on particular policy questions, then you are in much the same position as I am.<br /><br />If instead you truly decide to eschew the path of best possible progressive reform within the constraints at hand, then this is a decision I can certainly respect (tho' it is not my own decision), but only if that decision truly cashes out in actual revolutionary action instead. Otherwise it's just narcissistic tantrum throwing pretending to be political radicalism as far as I can tell.<br /><br />It is one thing to feel enraged or broken-hearted by DNC/Obama deficiencies, it is another (and false) thing to propose Dem-Rep equivalency theses. It is one thing to recognize that no party platform is adequate to one's radicalism, it is another (and false) thing to propose as a practical solution a third-party alternative when representative independent of America's two parties are forced nevertheless to caucus with one of these parties in any case to have any agency in governance and in the absence of instant runoff voting to insulate third-party runs from functioning as spoilers.<br /><br />Of course, radicals should continue to make their more radical cases, offer up their more radical accounts and proposals, provide more radical alternatives and so on. But it is crucial that one grasp the difference between such activities and actual reformist or revolutionary activity. It pays to be sensitive to the differences between campaigns that are intended to be reformist and those that claim to be revolutionary, the differences between analyses involving ideal cases as against best probable outcomes, and that one not use criteria more appropriate to the one to drive evaluation of the other, and so on.<br /><br />This is actually hard to do, and hard to keep in mind in the heat of conflict, and easy to get wrong case by case.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-14422471498138910702010-06-25T12:37:39.407-07:002010-06-25T12:37:39.407-07:00RCD -- if you actually have an opinion or a respon...RCD -- if you actually have an opinion or a response of your own, by all means make the effort actually to formulate it and post it. I just deleted your cut and pasting of somebody else's piece as I will delete posts that offer up nothing but links elsewhere. I am looking for useful interlocutors in the Moot, not ventriloquist dummies.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-65356073124305372362010-06-25T10:42:35.328-07:002010-06-25T10:42:35.328-07:00Speaking as a democratic socialist: More, and Bett...Speaking as a democratic socialist: More, and Better, Democrats.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-9976387289518304402010-06-25T10:14:35.504-07:002010-06-25T10:14:35.504-07:00Hello Summerspeaker.
Although I like Howard Zinn ...Hello Summerspeaker.<br /><br />Although I like Howard Zinn very much, every single time I hear news that officials from the White House are actually intervening to water down Wall Street reform, my views become and more aligned with those of an unrealistic "hater" like Chris Hedges.<br /><br />You should read his essay provocatively titled <b><i><a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/this_country_needs_a_few_good_communists_20100531/" rel="nofollow">This Country Needs a Few Good Communists</a></i></b>.RadicalCoolDudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06746981198102702164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-13983080863563023602010-06-23T20:07:27.679-07:002010-06-23T20:07:27.679-07:00I certainly fall into all of the listed categories...I certainly fall into all of the listed categories. My views on voting and Obama align with those expressed by Howard Zinn before his death. (There's a case for life extension if I've ever heard one!)Summerspeakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07870660699983182559noreply@blogger.com