[PEN-L:11549] Re: Home Mortgage Deduction

["James Michael Craven" <CRAVJM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From:          "William S. Lear" <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject:       [PEN-L:11514] Re: Home Mortgage Deduction
>
> > On Tue, July 29, 1997 at 16:28:27 (-0700) Max B. Sawicky writes:
> > >All you are doing is asserting that private ownership
> > >of any substantial body of capital inexorably implies
> > >all the evil deeds to which you refer, then you're trying
> > >to cast moral implications on my expected (and accurately
> > >so) refusal to swallow this assertion.
> >
> > Assertion with the benefit of history, yes.  You have a nice way of
> > waving away the past: "All you are doing is asserting that segregation
> > of any substantial body of blacks inexorably implies all the evil
> > deeds...".  Yes, today's capitalism---not yesterday's---is based upon
>
> I said "capital," and you translated my words, with quotes,
> as "segregation," as if to imply I regarded the latter as not
> necessarily evil.  Really!
>
> > an enormous legacy of theft and violence that didn't come to pass in
> > some dusty antiquity.  Did you think that railroads,
> > telecommunications, oil companies, AT&T, Nike, etc. just grew from the
> > wholesome sweat of a few provident workers who tucked their savings
> > away to one day fund these immense projects?  Does Taylorism
>
> No, but so what?
>
> > ("scientific" management) and the associated transformation of the
> > education system to serve up "properly" skilled and obedient workers,
> > as David Noble outlines, not figure into this in the least?
> >
> > >Did you have a real question?
> >
> > My, how impressive, and gosh, unexpected---another ad hominem blast
> > from Max.
>
> For the crime of not being your kind of socialist,
> you paint me with indifference to historic oppression,
> tyranny, slavery, segregation, etc., and than as the inevitable
> source of "ad hominem" remarks.  You are a piece of work.
>
> Bye.
>
Response (Jim C): "So What?"; the Nazi and other Holocausts--"so
what?"; Slavery--"so what?"; Subjugation of women--"so what?";etc.
The only thing missing here is: "No one in my family had slaves or
did any of this..." and "Some of my best friends are..." and we could
have an argument that Pat Buchanan or Pat Robertson would love.

When the anarchists used to use the slogan "property is theft" they
meant that the very same principles, values, laws, codes, privileges
etc--institutions--that sanctioned and protected private property in
fact indicted those institutions and/or demanded return of that very
same property when history is taken into account. Even under present
institutions of private property, history is taken into account when
it comes to titles, transfers of title, establishing legal
"ownership", unconscionability etc.

Then there is the matter of history living with and constraining the
present and the matter that initial "givens" (unequal distributions of
wealth and incomes) assume not only the present order and its "given"
power structures/relations, ownership forms and structures, value
systems etc, but these initial "givens" become even worse (increasing
concentration/centralization of capital etc) through the normal
imperatives/inner logic-based vicissitudes and dynamics of the system.

Views of history--or refusal to take seriously history with statments
like "so what?"--shape the views of the present, views of what is
possible/necessary, views about core causality and of course views
about the real constraints and causes of victimization ("So What your
anscestors were slaves or brutalized Indians, no one in my family did
it, some of my best friends are... and just get off your ass and stop
trying to get "preferential treatment through reverse racism" and
work hard like my ancestors did with no affirmative action working
for them...").

I wonder: suppose someone called up the author of the above statement
"so what?" and said that he was dying and wanted to get right with
God and said "You know, many years ago  your grandfather and I were
involved in a business deal and I cheated him out of a million
dollars and in order to get right with God I am leaving that money to
you as his only and rightful heir; would you just say no, that's
history, it has nothing to do with me, "so what?".

Failure to admit, redress and learn/apply the expensive lessons of
history only reifies, mystifies, obfuscates, legitimates and even
reproduces that which is never dead as history is always alive and
well within the present and shaping perceptions and actions in the
present and therefore the future as well.

                              Jim Craven

*-------------------------------------------------------------------*
*                           "Those who take the most from the table,*
*  James Craven                teach contentment.                   *
*  Dept of Economics         Those for whom the taxes are destined, *
*  Clark College               demand sacrifice.                    *
*  1800 E. Mc Loughlin Blvd. Those who eat their fill,              *
*  Vancouver, Wa. 98663        speak to the hungry,                 *
*  (360) 992-2283              of wonderful times to come.          *
*  Fax: (360) 992-2863    Those who lead the country into the abyss,*
*  jcraven@xxxxxxxxx           call ruling difficult,               *
*                              for ordinary folk." (Bertolt Brecht) *
* MY EMPLOYER HAS NO ASSOCIATION WITH MY PRIVATE/PROTECTED OPINION  *