AUT: ALDS: (1) improved comments section, (2) our demographic ambitions

["Ben Seattle" <left-transparency@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Chris:
> I posted, though I think as redtwister666 (I put my e-mail
> adress), an offer to post something more detailed on the
> state around Lenin's State and Revolution when you get
> the Formal Comments(?) section up and running.  Even
> so, I will go over 153 and 160 again more carefully.

It will likely be several days (or weeks) before I get the formal
comments section functional.  Because it will allow for
formatting, I will need to give the poster the ability to to
review his posts before making them permanent (ie: to check for
formatting goofs).  I think that I could do this in about a day
(or less) but I have several other priorities and sharply limited
time.

So, in the meantime, as a stop-gap measure, I have modified the
"quick comments" section to give it somewhat greater
functionality:
(1) A title (up to about 20 words) that will appear
      in dark blue boldface
(2) Comments of unlimited length (the first 300 words will show
      up on the main page--the remainder will show up when
      the reader clicks the "read more" link)
(3) You get to use the "<p>" tag to separate paragraphs
      (but not any other html).

This is not really sufficient for serious essays, but represents
an improvement over what has existed.

You can also send an essay directly to me (or post it here on
aut-op-sy) and I can add it as a "relevant essay" in the relevant
essays section.

Your comments (I assume) from Jan 5:

> The state, premised upon capital's separation of the
> economic and the political as distinct spheres, is not
> really even discussed in all of this, so state and capital
> have not even been linked yet. This is all too typical
> of Marxism and anarchism and if the formal statement
> part gets working, I will try to post something decent
> on this.

Sound potentially interesting however I am unable to understand
(based on this short sentence) what you mean.  I believe that in
part 5 I link the state and capital at least in the sense of
asserting that modern capital flows could not exist without the
facilitation and protection of a state machine.

Thomas:
> Ben, in all honesty your the front page of your site
> looks like it was set up to provoke inflammatory
> posts.
> Is it any wonder that someone like "proffessor" posted
> such a comment?  If hot flame wars are what you want,
> then your site is perfect.  However, a home page like
> that is not conducive to serious discussion.
> I mean, the front page of your webiste looks like an
> advertisement for the World Wrestling Federation...in
> this corner from New York City, weighing in at 160, we
> have Lou "the mouth" Proyect; in the other corner,
> from Aix-en-Provence, France we have [...]

Well, Thomas, that was a deliberate decision by Daniel and me to
try to help make the debate fun, sexy and exciting to political
newcomers who are sometimes (rightfully) alienated by dry,
academic jargon designed to either impress or intimidate readers.
I guess you might say that it represents a good-natured
concession to our current mindless youth culture--the search for
"politainment".  So far, at least, most of the responses to the
site have been quite positive.  It seems clear that the majority
of those who take the time to read much of the
material--understand that my debate partner and myself actually
have a high degree of respect for one another.

The serious side of the debate is found in the content: that
Daniel and I are serious about coming up with the best arguments
we can, the best questions, the kind that are really
thought-provoking.

It is possible that the "politainment" orientation is mistaken.
Only experience will prove that one way or another.  But,
personally, I am highly confident that the politainment approach
is the correct one.  Assuming that the actual content of the site
is of very high quality (a big assumption--but that is what
Daniel and I are aiming for) the idea of packaging it to appeal
to restless teenagers who want to understand what is involved in
creating a better world--would position us to better take
advantage of the emerging revolution in digital communications.
We want to expand our demographic appeal to a broader section of
the population.  Let Sony and Microsoft come out with the
Playstation and XBox.  Our reply is politainment that--at its
core--is _deadly serious_.  Now what could be cooler than that?

Sincerely and with revolutionary regards,
Ben Seattle
----//-// 7.Jan.2003
http://struggle.net/Ben ? my elists / theory / infrastructure

http://struggle.net/ALDS ? anarcho-leninist debate on the state
Do _you_ have ideas?  Or do ideas have _you_ ?

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