Skipping other parts to which I'll respond later:
>Maybe you think we will not persuade Mr. ARJ. I agree. But consider:
>
>You are starving!
>You're telling me? says Juana or Anjali or Wu. We have always starved, it's
>the way has been around here. There's no point complaining.
>It's because of capitalism, you say. More empirical analysis.
>That's very interesting, say J/A/W. This doesn't put food on our families, as
>Shrub so eloquently put it.
>But, say you, it doesn't have to be this way. We can have socialism!
> Now, you might think that J/A/W, being self-interested and concerned
>for their families, will say, Oh, in that case, where's the party, I want to
>smash the state. However, people are not self interested in this way, they
>will not respond mechanically to this sort of appeal. They have get mad.
> To get mad, they need to become outraged, to think that there is
>something intolerable with the harm they suffer, to think it is wrong.
>
>You say: Mr. ARJ doesn't care about you, he thinks it is OK for you to starve.
>Well, why shouldn't he. The lords and bosses are superior beings.
>Rubbish, you say, all people are equal. We have rights! Our interests count
>just as much as theirs!
>But what about property rights? say J/A/W, since they saw Thomas Sowell on
>TV. And anyway, markets are natural and produce the best possible social
>outcomes.
>You trash these theories as ideological. The right moral theory entitles you
>to a decent life!
>Hmm. You may be right. In fact, that explains this nagging feeling that
>something is wrong with our starving to death. Damn straight! Go girl! They
>have no right to wallow while we starve! They are no better than we are! Now,
>where's that party?
>
>Obviously I abbreviate a few steps. But you see the point.
I like the above very much, in that the language of justice, rights, etc. definitely comes into play in agitation. When you appeal to people in this fashion (and especially if your appeal is successful, heard by people ready to move), you are, or at least the consequences of actions that result from the movement are, going beyond the realm of rights philosophically understood (which is to say, universalistically). Rights of lords & bosses will melt into thin air.
Yoshie