Re: Forwarded from Anthony (NYT)

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >"David Quarter" The
> > main thing is that we should tone down the rhethoric and stop the
> > finger pointing -- for example, get rid of the cliches (ie., "class
> > collaborator", "false consciousness", "petty bourgeois" ), stop the
> > divisive interventions, communicate in language acessible to
> > average citizens (i.e., workers, students, small business
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> But there is no rhetoric and no finger-pointing. Look at this very
> discussion on Marxmail.  No rhetoric, no accusations, no waving of bloody
> shirts, flags, etc.  but rather  a cogently argued, detailed, substantive
> argument about where and how we go forward from here.>>>>


Comrade lvnadal:

I have on occasions witnessed the opposite on this list. But, I'm
speaking more towards the issue of the face to face communiation.

>
> Also, my assessment of the "ripeness" of the US for more "radical"
> articulations is very different from yours. >>>>>

  I can't speak for the U.S. since I'm in Canada. ANd I suspect that
the Canadian political landscape is significantly father to the left to
the U.S. Yet, the slogans at all anti-war demos I've attended so far
have been very much reformist and passifist.


> The economy is going to go deeper into the tank than it has in the last 50
> years, thieves, criminals, and extortionists lead the parades of patriots,
> and we think the public aren't ready?  More than ready.  They will only
> listen to something that speaks the truth without equivocation.>>>>

 Of course, the economy is disintegrating. And yes -- as a whole --
peoples standards of living have (very likely) dropped within the last
2 decades (I say, very likely since there are other factors that may
have offset this  trend  -- for example, the drop in earnings over the
last 20 or 30 years may have been cushioned by the availability of
cheaper goods to consumers). Yet, this isnt to say that this will
automatically translate into an upsurge in anger and discontent
directed towards the ruling class (as opposed to singling out
certain elements) and towards the system as a whole. There is,
unfortunately, no relatioinship with worsening of living standards
and likelihood to engage in radical politics. If that were the case,
class warfare would have broken out throughout most of the world
long ago. Social control  is a complex phenomenon -- which is
something many Marxists don't realize or simply ignore.  Also, The
forms of social control now employed by the ruling class are much
more sophisticated than in the past -- and in the end will be a
barrier more difficult to overcome in our hope to win over the hearts
and minds of the working class and other exploited groups for
revolutionary struggle. The maintenance of patterns of inequality,
and what brought them about in the first place are separate
questions.

DOQ