>G'day Daniel of Flemings,
>Have you been taken over and rationalised yet?
Good to see you too mate, long time none. I guess the answers would be yes and no; taken over, but remain steadfastly irrational. I keep talking about "loyalty" and "retention", but all I ever hear back is "overlap" and "synergy".
Anyway, quoth your good self:
..
>Doug sez somewhere that money of the mind gets to meet old fashioned
matter
>head-on somewhere along the line, and comes out of it second best.
One of the smartest things Doug ever said was that when people start talking about how "information is the new currency of , etc, etc", what they typically mean is that power is the new currency. Or something. God, my memory appears to be going the way of my attention span.
> He also
>sez thereabouts that debt doesn't start crises, but is the sort of thing
>likely to help said crisis develop into a doozy. Any nominations for the
>sort of 'external' kickstart that might bring about that showdown between
>Grant's money of the mind and the vengeance of the material?
Well, I kind of disagree with Doug on this one then, 'cause I think that debt can start a crisis on its own, if you have enough of it. For one thing, loans get made like these bankrupt mortgages; loans which can never be repaid no matter what happens, and if the banks were thinking straight they'd know it. For another, it's possible to generate Mexico-like situations, where the debt is so piled up that pretty much *anything* can be the trigger. But for what it's worth, the runners and riders in the Flemings Banks Team Death Pool (put together on our last marketing slog) are:
dd: Yuan devaluation, break of the HK$ peg. Boss: Insolvency of big US bank due to bad retail debts. Spanish chap: Asset-backed securities market falling over due to rate rises, a la 1994 Tame Nog: US margin debt Idiot-boy the Trainee: Rogue trader at big investment bank
>If the fall be proportional to the pride preceding it, we should just
about
>make terminal velocity on this one ...
Nahhhh .... last week, the head of sales came round with a crate of beers to celebrate a big deal ... would have been champers in a proper bull market.
Cheers, Rob.
You also wrote:
>Even those of us joined in our hatred of them (and I like, enjoy and
>respect quite a few conservatives, myself) confront the fact that we are
>not defending the singular present (conservatives do not need to
>problematise the present - even if they reckon it's crap, they're all
>agreed that deliberate radical change'd make it worse, and that's the
>important thing - never mind that the economic right worship _accidental_
>radical change), but seeking a myriad contending futures and a myriad
>contending ways of getting there.
>Any ideas on how we address that little thing?
Which I don't know, but maybe someone should come up with a unifying anthem, like Joe Hill did, that all of the factions of the left could sing together. It wouldn't solve everything on its own, but it might be a start ... oh go on then ... I'll do it :-)
Anthem of the Left -------------------
Provided as "open source" to the community, or whatever, to a popular tunr
------------------------------
Weellllllll.... Don't let's be beastly to the Marxists Don't let's be beastly to the trots There's really no reason to hate the SWP The Fabians, the Leninists or Green Party The Trotskyites have their fourth International The Blairites have their Third Way The anarchists have consensual affinity groups But we're all on the same side at the end of the day A Naderite should not dismiss a Communist A Wobbly should try to love a Spart A union organiser might not love a postmodernist but shouldn't despise her Or the movement will for certain fall apart. We mock the Social Democrats But really should do less of that We ought to let them know we love them lots So don't let's be beastly to the Marxist Don't let's be beastly to the Trots!
Ooooohhhhh Don't let's be beastly to the socialists Don't let's be beastly to the Left The DSA, the SDS, the CPUSA We're all on the same bally side, I really have to say (though I must say, I'm not sure about that Brad DeLong, his eyes are too close together for my comfort) The rivalry twixt "Dissent" and "The Nation" Has spilled a most extraordinary lot of ink Be it the Kosovar bombing "isher" Or the Michigan Militia There's really not such ideological distance between 'em as either side think (oh really, Doug, you know that there isn't) The BRC must be appreciated The Maoists too can never be ignored For each time Mr. Cockburn Dips his pen to make a foe burn The vast right wing conspiracy counts it yet another own goal scored Our bourgeois pals who vote for Gore Should be dear chums who we adore Don't tell them that their property is theft! And don't let's be beastly to the soc'lists Don't let's be beastly to the left!
(You may note that this song does not scan;) ( this is to allow various affinity groups to sing it independently in the metrical division of their own choosing, away from the main group.) (Differences in timing and emphasis can always be smoothed out afterwards, when the goal has been achieved) (And the important thing is, we're making PROGRESS!)
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Email is an informal method of communication and is
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over the content of information contained in
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it will normally be inappropriate to rely on information
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from all locations in your computer. You should not copy
this email or use it for any purpose, or disclose its
contents to any person : to do so may be unlawful.
Email is an informal method of communication and is
subject to possible data corruption, either accidentally
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