religion, etc.

[Rakesh Bhandari]

A few quick thoughts: 1. re Wojtek's conversation with a good ole boy in a
Baltimore laundromat, encourage him to refer to criminal lumpen
proletarians  as hoodlums or thugs or goons, instead of as n-words; 2. how
many religious people are progressive activists?  When I think of
religion, I think of a non-unionized, divorced bed nurse who spends the
weekends selling the newspaper of the Jehovah's Witness cult, which
preaches that quiet suffering (esp of absued women)  will be rewarded in
the afterlife and that god's design can be discovered in the chaos of the
world, rendering useless any rational empirically based discussion of our
society and the possibility of its improvement. 3. re the militias, I do
think it is important that they are not demonized  in such a way that
liberals and progressives beg for protection from Morris Dees and the FBI
and call for the enforcement of the anti-terrorism act--surely one of the
greatest acts of state terrorism and attacks on civil liberties.
Otherwise, I think the Militias are a bunch of punks; and I think anti
liberal liberal  elites who celebrate them as a way of getting under the
skin of their fellow liberal elites are basically the biggest wimps of
all--they are too scared to challenge the Militia types head on. Instead
the anti liberal liberal elites, like Cockburn, accuse the Militia critics
of being softies and wimps. The reverse is true. 
best, rakesh
ps excerpt below is from Eqbal Ahmad; it regards the consequences of
religious rule in India today. 

When mountains die

Eqbal Ahmad

	Each historical time has had its own temper. But one factor
has been common throughout history to the attainment of progress and
greatness.  Historians of culture describe this one factor variously
as syncretism, openness, pluralism, and a spirit of tolerance.  Where
ideas do not clash, diverse influences, knowledge, viewpoints, and
cultures do not converge, civilization does not thrive and greatness
eludes.  The rightist environment of religious chauvinism and
intolerance which the BJP and its allies promote in India =96 it
pervades Pakistan for other reasons =96 is deeply harmful to India's
future. Nuclearisation of nationalism has further degraded this
environment. The tests have worsened the xenophobia of Hindutva
supporters. Reaction no less than a habit of emulation among
fundamentalist adversaries, will undoubtedly reinforce right wing
sentiments and excesses in Pakistan. In recent weeks BJP supporters
stormed a meeting of anti-nuclear scientist, attacked artist
M.F. Hussain's home and destroyed his paintings, in retaliation of US
sanctions assaulted trucks carrying Pepsi and CocaCola, disrupted a
concert by Pakistani musician Ustad Ghulam Ali.  "The atmosphere of
intolerance has been gaining ground recently", says an editorial in
the Hindustan Times. "Such actions will break up the very fabric of
this country" warns Ambika Sen, a leader of the Indian National
Congress. In Pakistan, government owned television darkly and
repeatedly suggested that opponents of a nuclear test were foreign
agents.