Re: On Bello

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Diamond wrote:
> ... Bello quotes Gray in defense of the idea that the goal of his politics
> is "to express and protect local and national cultures by embodying and
> sheltering their distinctive practices."  This is a form of relativism
> that undermines the universal quality of concepts like the rule of law,
> human rights and labor standards....

Because I don't know his views very well at all, I don't have a brief for
Bello (or against him). But it seems to me that the opposition between
protecting local/national cultures and the rule of law, human rights, and
labor standards can easily be drawn in excessively black/white, yes/no
terms. Part of the rule of law, labor standards, and especially human
rights is the protection of human cultural heterogeneity, against (for
example) the drive by the IMF/World Bank/US Treasury troika to impose
capitalist and bureaucratic homogeneity. So it seems as if we can look for
a way to "square the circle," to reconcile localism and universality. One
place to look is in principles of democracy...

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine "Segui il
tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.)
-- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.