greetings, Left: The main reason I even use this word in real life ( as opposed to list-life) is cause I like to mention it in conversation with civilians, where it always stirs up the air a little, even if nothing is said. Also, I always talk to the few people reading "serious" books while dining, usually conservative, (I did get a retired Ga. Tech math prof. to subscribe to the Nation. Took over 2 yrs. of brief comments on slow nights.) I like to mention that if they wanted some really nasty stuff on Clinton, they should read left-leaning pubs. like CounterPunch.(I'm not a bitter person) And I denounce the drum-beat echo that Clinton is left. I tell them the Left hates Clinton much more than the Right and that I voted for Nader.(Never mention the Greens part, which I considered unfortunate, among other things, like Nader's failure to live on television and radio. Still love the guy though)
"That is to say "the left" is an imprecise and unstable concept "
The word Left, like the word God is troublesome, but other words feel even clumsier. In either case I know what I mean and if the conversation gets going the other person will too.
"Pay attention to the militias. They are increasingly composed of people who are not "white," not male, pissed off, and smart. How shold "the left" respond to them???"
Respectfully, sympathetically, sincerely and patiently. But energetically. And thanks for reminding me of one of the main reasons I wanted a computor.
It's so comfy in the choir.
I also remember wishing that woman and blacks and scary militants would just lay low while McGovern got elected. I guess that means I'm bad. Still bad, though.
Oh Dear. Where are you on these kind of questions now?
I don't know. Stealth works so well for the conservative forces and the attention span of the public is so short. There was a lot of rather childish provocation back then and I guess that's what I really meant. Yes it was understandable but was it worth it. I already admitted I was a bad. Befuddled and frustrated too. I should have included guys with long hair. It was a careless metaphor for my annoyance with outrageousness instead of somber out-rage which might have given Nixon fewer votes. After "Flamingo Park" I wondered if the SDS, Yippies, etc were all on the Nixon re-election team payroll.(That was my only real exposure to these folks, and I loved being at the Park, I'm talking about public tactics, not trying to step on toes)
"Yes, but don't under-estimate the power & significance of his utopian idealism either."
No way Paul,I adore the man. Does anyone else wonder if his murder was manipulated for political reasons?
"You ignored my thoughts about left demogoguery. Any reason?"
Those thoughts are TABOO son, watch out, you'll be voo-doo-ed.
" They don't sympathize with workers today in the bottom ten or twenty percent of incomes, they feel they have nothing in common with those people."
The whole idea of "unskilled" labor has to be smashed. The people who handle the register at the gas station deserve to make a living wage, period. If a job needs to be done right, it's a skilled job, in my book. In fact, if for some reason only white men suddenly clerked at convenience stores, chances are the perceived skill level would make a considerable leap, pay too. Or maybe those days are fading. BYE, BYE AMERICAN PIE...
"I remember the one and only time a political argument of mine made any headway at all in there"
My biggest work-place coop was when at the beginning of the Gulf War I told my fellows that Saddamn would come out smelling like a rose. After that folks started coming around to discuss politics, mostly local. BTW did anyone else think the GW came at a really convenient time for Bush. Weren"t both his son's scandels about to hit the mainstream, finally? The Medicare thing in FL. I forget the Texas one. Whatever happened to those inconvenient stories, anyone know?
"Gore will need to be forced by mass campaigning to implement his commitments on the environment. But his administration might half cooperate with an agenda about it. " Chris Burford.
London.
I hope you're right, I think your wrong. Of course I also think Clinton's whole healthcare campaign was a sham, maybe to guarentee public acceptance of managed-care. I have a suspicious nature. A quarter-back sneak. That's a sports thing right? Managed-care is an assumed reality now, something to be tinkered with.
Like Capitalism, hey Mark? If the SDS was disappointed in Johnson, things were sillier than I ever dared imagine. What could they have expected?
THIS WEEK'S POCKET PROFILE Elizabeth Drew (Washington Week in Review) calls Vice President Al Gore an "environmental extremist who grew up in a hotel room."
Looks like the right-wing Story Factory is laying ground just in case Chris is right. Man, they're good.
I would love the chance to be personally and irrevocably disillusioned by a McGovern or a Wellstone. Then I'd be ready for Mark's vision.
"This is capitalism at its most dizzying and most fetishistic"
This must be why I'm stuck on the idea of the rich as sociopaths. I mean, a guy holds up a store, it's the pathology of the poor. Somebody with more money than they'll ever need will stop at nothing to get more and this is not considered sick. At the heart of the matter, isn't Capitalism a mental illness and the number one cause of soul cancer? I get the impression Marx dealt with this.
oh, you too Joshua2.
THIS WEEK'S POCKET PROFILE Elizabeth Drew (Washington Week in Review) calls Vice President Al Gore an "environmental extremist who grew up in a hotel room."
"you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
EXPOSE CORPORATE SUBVERSION AND POLITICAL PUPPETS!
A hotel room?
Smooches(all you multi-culturalists ARE hip to "Living Single" right) Paula