mbs: am not.
>>>>
mBS on patents:
>The Gov could still finance medical aid or permit foreign licensing
in
>special cases.
Well then are you willing to build this into your health care
proposal.
>>>>
of course, but so what? You still don't get it. Politics is not about the relentless upholding of abstract principles.
>mbs: this is philosophy, not politics.
RNB: Politics means here for the labor movement to dig deep roots in
society by
proving that the impediments it must remove to liberate itself promise
the
emancipation of society as a whole. That is the attack on private
property,
profit and the commodification of human needs are in the universal
interest, not simply the selfish and narrow interest of labor. You
would
take away this political weapon of labor.
>>>
mbs: more admirable philosophy.
>>
And for what? The absolutely
stupid idea that if labor agrees to your watered down health care
proposal
the Democratic Party would be willing to champion it and on that basis
win
enough seats in the Congress to put it through. >>
mbs: I never went into this part of it. It's not obvious the Dem Party would support such a plan, not because of anything related to abortion, but to political economy.
>>
I have news for you Max:
the Democrats will not push even your watered down 'universal' health
care
proposal. You are asking for concessions and silences for nothing in
return. You try to discipline labor to accept the boundaries that
narrow
unthinking prejudice establishes and prevent labor from developing
that the
radical, human and universal agenda by the articulation of which it
will
emerge as the class in which by embodying universal reason it enjoys
the
greatest political advantage of all.
>>
mbs: more philosophy. Too bad we couldn't eat philosophy. You could feed the world.
>mbs: I note the phrase "must aid every social and political movement
>tending in that direction . . . " and thank you for the citation.
Which means the support of those fighting for free needles to save
that
expendable class of human beings, free access to abortion to enable
women's
emancipation, the non commodification of drugs to save thousands of
lives.
>>
Sure, but not necessarily all immediately, or at the same time.
cheers, mbs