Re: [Marxism] French elections

[Sukla Sen <suklasenp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Sayan,

You're both right and wrong.

It is true that one may try to apply it as a blanket
rule.
It is also equally true that it'd be the wrong way of
doing things.

There's no substitute for application of mind. Or, put
in somewhat different, and perhaps more familiar,
fashion: a concrete situation is to be judged
concretely.

Let's take a hypothetical case, when they're three
contenders - A, B and C. A is the worse of the first
two. The third one is ideal in terms of
policy/ideology but does not have the remotest chance
of winning and would definitely damage the prospect of
B and help out A in a way.

Under such circumstances, two things will have to be
carefully evaluated. 
One, A is how much worse than B? What will be the
practical consequences of A winning? How scary is it?
Two, a tad or two less important though, how much real
damage C is going to inflict on the prospects of B?
Does B stand any chance even otherwise? Or B is going
to win, or lose, regardless?
(Even this is a simplified model!)

The final decision will have to flow from these
evaluations, not any blanket and abstract rule
unconnected with the specific case one is dealing
with.
And the evaluation must relate to the situation on  a
real time basis. As the situation keeps evolving.

Of course the intellectually lazy ones will highly
detest presentation of the problematic in such a
format. They'll look for a much simpler answer.
Unfortunately they are misfits in the real world -
woefully incapable of grappling with real life
problems, with all its extant complexities.

Sukla

Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:05:55 -0400
From: "Sayan Bhattacharyya"
<ok.president+marxmail@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Marxism] French elections
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition"
        <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID:

<908b689f0704200405o23343d9ekef3117e4fe72f1f9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1;
format=flowed

On 4/20/07, Jean-Christophe Helary
<fusion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I think you are not correct. I could not give a damn
about the flag
> or the anthem. I will vote Royal because I don't
believe workers are
> masochists who need 5 more years of Sarkozy.

> Which political context will provide a favorable
context for
> Besancenot, Laguiller, Buffet, Bové and others to
express their
> opinions and organize ?
>
> Is the PS an amorphous mass of equally brainwashed
members ? Or are
> there "left" groups in the PS that could also
benefit from the party
> being in power for 5 years ?

This line of thinking is familiar.  It calls for a
vote for Democrats
in the USA (because the Republicans are worse), for
the Congress in
India (because the BJP is worse) for Blair in England
(because the
Tories are worse), etc. What you wrote could apply to
each of these
cases.


      ___________________________________________________________ 
Copy addresses and emails from any email account to Yahoo! Mail - quick, easy 
and free. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/trueswitch2.html 

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism