>Perhaps my calculator is broken, but it's telling me that if just over half
>of the people support the war then just under half *don't* support it.
plus or minus 3% even eric, so it could actually be over half.
now wojtek can give us a rave about the meaninglessness of survey data--and he'd be quite right, in my opinion --even if no one has surveyed and tabulated me lately!
as i wrote on another list, it's not my sense that the folks who live in my neighborhood or who i meet in my travels are behind the bombing. indeed, they are quite cynically negative about the whole deal, certain that we are being lied to and not really buying for ONE minute any of US/NATO rationales for why we're there. anecdotal evidence from a block party a bit ago, but hey. and i'll be sure to report my findings from my visit to the Elk's club with my pops friday nite where i plan on getting thoroughly tanked while playing pool and darts, badly.
wojtek replies
>True, but I do not see much of the protest action here that is reportedly
>going on in Europe, despite the fact that:
well, errrr, bias of the media perhaps? notorious for failing to report protest actions. the editor of the local paper was very anti-Gulf War but he knew what was good for biznizz. sure as heck kept that sort of news out of the frame during the Gulf War and yet we knew what was going on, just as we know now that there are plenty of protest actions, though admittedly fewer in number because the left is a bit more mucked about this one than normal.
>1. Our fearless leader started a major war without calling it such (he did
>not have sex with Monica either) in a clear violation of the Constitution;
and
OLD news wojtek. how many times have we gone to war since WWII without a formal declaration of such? far too many.
>2. The US forces do most of the fighting and most of the damage among
>civilian population in Serbia and Kosovo.
again, what's new? ditto Gulf War, ey?
say, where you hiding that 'working class has more agency' than we typically think posturing you were doing only last week? i don't want to sound fresh, but i'd like to have a peek under your petticoats, wojtek. you *must* be hiding it somewhere because now it appears that they are a mindless herd, a bunch of cultural dopes.....
>It looks like people not giving a shit anymore what policies, if any, the
>people who call themselves the government pursue.
well, this is about where folks are at. how exactly can you blame people for feeling powerless when time and time again folks on this list point out how utterly meaningless two party politics is, how utterly undemocratic it really is, ad nauseum. not too long ago they felt rather powerless as an impeachment vote went forward despite some rather vigorous objections. whether pop op. was right or wrong, that's not the issue. but just think about how unimportant people feel, how lacking in any sense that they can effect some sort of change, or even have their voices heard, let alone acted on? why should they bother-- especially in the face of the military industrial perplex?? particularly in the face of what is presented, relentlessly, as an international NATO NATO NATO action.
not voting, not acting, not protesting IS a form of voting, acting, protesting. it's flipping the finger at everyone, fuck it. so, like eric, i agree that it really doesn't get 'the left' or 'lefties'--whatever your fave appellation--very far to dismiss people so quickly. your attitude above is well-entrenched among the left wojtek. it exists in the tension with and yet, curiously, operates in tandem with the valorization of the heroic working class--a quite comfy relationship i might add. it is something that 'the marxist left' needs to come to terms with if it every truly wants to form some sort of broad-based working-class social movement.
passing the soapbox, kelley
>
Q: Are you an academic? Q: Who says? Q: And that's enough for you, is it?