RE: Re: Sabri on Turkey

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Finally I am back home and just saw this:

>>Why does America, or as Chris keeps calling it, Empire, although I am
>>not sure if he is aware of that America and Empire are the same thing,
>>do that?
>
>The Canada, the EU, and Japan, what are they, chopped liver?
>
>Doug

Interesting categorization Doug. Never thought about this.

It all depends on what you mean by the word Empire. If by Empire what is
meant is the current global capitalist order, then like the US, Japan,
Canada, the EU and, of course Rob, OZ, are also at the core but if what is
meant by Empire is the current hegemon of the global capitalist order then
Empire is the US, however declining its hegemonic powers may be.

These are very confusing times and I am no less confused than anyone else.
It is very interesting and painful to watch history playing in such a fast
forward fashion as well as to watch many experts and intellectuals, most of
whom the core capitalist countries, forwarding their prophesies as if they
have the complete grasp of what is going on. This is not to say that we
should not try to understand these events of enormous world-historical
importance as analytically as possible so that we can intervene but we
should be kind enough to grant others the benefit of doubt about our
theoretical offerings. This is not some kind of relativism but a reflection
of my belief, and let me repeat, belief (something I take for granted, not
question), that the degree of turbulence we are experiencing is so high that
most of our explanations/predictions become void in the scale of a few days.
As fluid dynamicists would say, it is all about time scales.

The other day I spoke to my mom over the phone and at some point asked her
this dreadful question: "How are things there?"
She told me about Armagan Abi (Abi means older brother, a way of referring
to not so older males whom we respect). Armagan Abi was once a happy man,
full of life and laughter, had two college age kids, a "good" business of
buying things cheap and selling expensive, as most Turkish business men do,
and, for short, someone I knew and liked. A few nights ago, she said,
Armagan Abi took a bottle of sleeping pills and drank a bottle of raki on
top of that, only to be found dead the next morning. Every day, tens of
these, that go unreported, are happening back home as with many more and
more dreadful events around the globe.

And we are here, in this virtual world, fighting each other! Shouldn't we do
something about this?

Sabri Oncu


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 11:09 AM
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [PEN-L:19642] Re: Sabri on Turkey


Michael Perelman wrote:

>Why does America, or as Chris keeps calling it, Empire, although I am
>not sure if he is aware of that America and Empire are the same thing,
>do that?

The Canada, the EU, and Japan, what are they, chopped liver?

Doug