Re: Civil liberties, Environment

[Adam Levenstein <cleon42@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Redaktion Red Globe <sammler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> It is therefore just a day-dream to declare civil
> rights to a value
> govern the fight for a stabilisation of socialist
> power. This means,
> have a dialectical look at it, to surrender against
> the fog of good
> will and give power back to those who just care
> about their profits
> and cannot otherwise.

OK, on point one - that counterrevolutionary elements
will be within the working class - I agree. (Miami
comes to mind.) And yes, it probably would be a
"daydream" to think otherwise.

However, the point where we disagree is how to fight
that. Can we really think of no better way than to
outlaw the freedom of expression? Will that solve the
problem, or will it begin a counterrevolutionary slide
wherein the working class ultimately is removed from
power?

My guess is the latter. Once you limit or prohibit the
free expression of ideas, even counterrevolutionary
ones, you limit democracy - and I don't mean bourgeois
democracy. You limit people's ability to make
objective analysis and objective decisions.

For example, someone brought up China's opening to
capitalism. Opening the country to capitalist
exploitation could easily be discerned as a
counterrevolutionary idea (and it may well be - that's
not the point I'm trying to make, though). Had not the
Chinese leadership come up with that plan, but had a
peasant come up with it, would the idea have been
evaluated and used, or would he have been imprisoned
for counterrevolutionary speech?

In my opinion, outlawing free expression is in itself
counterrevolutionary and counterproductive for this
reason. It's rather like shooting yourself in the foot
to get a mosquito. It might solve the problem, but it
causes a greater one. In this case, the problem it
creates is one in which the people's ability to govern
is seriously handicapped.

> The statement includes, to be
> frank, a
> fundamental counter revolutionary thinking.

You know, Henry Liu said it followed an "anarchist
view." And neither of you have justified such
generalized comments. Coincidentally, this makes my
point about witchhunts.

Adam



=====
Adam Levenstein                          cleon42@xxxxxxxxx
ICQ: 17125158

And now, for something completely different.

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