>Charles Brown wrote:
>
>>But you , Doug, don't have much ability to influence North Korean
>>policy either, or the policy of 4-5 billion people's governments
>>anymore than you can change or control the U.S. government.
>
>I thought a fundamental principle of socialism was solidarity with
>the oppressed around the world. It's interesting that you & Carrol
>think that we should limit our critiques to our own country, which
>doesn't have much to do with international solidarity, does it?
I'm all for international solidarity. The best means to express solidarity with & support the workers and peasants of the world is to destroy American imperialism from inside the belly of the beast. Dismantle the national security state & the standing army (especially troops overseas). Make this country ungovernable. Let anarchy rule.
>>So, why pronouncements about how N. Korea should change it bizarre,
>>exotic , "oriental", "otherdrenched" personality cult, etc. anymore
>>than pronouncements about the U.S. pulling out troops and giving
>>reparations ?
>
>We've been through this already. Giant pictures of the leader all
>over the place are a pretty creepy thing, regardless of the location
>of the pix or the ethnicity of the leader.
Creepier to see grown men & women happily & proudly wear clothes advertising logos of multinational corporations, *of their own free will*. At least, North Koreans have an excuse of being subjected by the state to eyesores: poorly executed statues & pictures of a stocky middle-aged man who looks, alas, like a used-car salesman. It is a good fortune of the Cuban people to have Che -- the world's sexiest revolutionary martyr -- as the object of nation-wide Courtly Love. Even Castro doesn't look half bad, for his age.
>Just saw the man this morning at Verso's office; he thanked me for
>forwarding him all the comments from his critics here, and said wait
>til you see his book on "totalitarianism," due out in January. Very
>pro-Lenin, or so he claims.
Tell Zizek that I'm holding my breath (till I turn blue). Will he send me a T-shirt with Lacanian mathemes stenciled on it?
hasta la victoria siempre,
Yoshie