cyberutopian libertarianism

Enzo Michelangeli em at who.net
Mon Dec 14 19:50:15 PST 1998


-----Original Message----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Date: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 1:53 AM


>Enzo Michelangeli wrote, responding to me:
>
>>>Did you ever have a moment where you thought that maybe furious change
for
>>>the sake of production is an appalling, destructive, even oppressive
thing?
>>>Even just a nanosecond?
>>
>>
>>Did you ever have a moment where you thought that maybe the left is
sinking
>>into conservativism, and that could well be the reason for its declining
>>sex appeal?
>
>That ain't me, buddy. I've never been a Luddite or a sentimentalist. Why do
>you think the critique of ceaseless change in the pursuit of profit amounts
>to an embrace of stasis? Some change is good, some is bad; some hurts lots
>of people for the profit of a few, and some doesn't. Why you stuck on an
>either/or binary?

Doug,

I wasn't especially referring to you, but I can't see how someone calling him/herself a progressive can consider change as an "appalling, destructive and oppressive thing", if "for sake of production": especially considering that most people on this planet suffer from _insufficient_ production. More equitable division of benefits is a legitimate leftist objective, but it is slowly and subtly being replaced by greenish anti-industrial themes more consistent with right-wing conservativism. Do they alert about body-snatchers in "Duffy the vampire slayer"?

Cheers --

Enzo



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