eco-optimism

Ian Murray seamus2001 at home.com
Thu Aug 9 17:51:14 PDT 2001



> ========
> Hey, let's not fall on the sword of our ambitions and hope here.
> (((((((
>
> CB: So, you read my comment as suicidal despair ? I meant
self-criticism so that we can do better, not give up. ========= No but you did sound like you were engaging in some of that self-loathing stuff. Plus I did forget my emoticon :-)


>>A lot
the wonderful agit dynamics of the sixties that diffused/dissipated can be explained by good people falling in love with other good people and having families and kids.


> CB: So how do we prevent that from having that effect on the
movement ?
>
======== Got me.


>
>
> > Then as you point out below, look at our children. So many are
> business majors, dot.com CEO's and execs, money-firsters,
> "capitulators to the money-culture", gangster rap enthusiasts,
> material girls and boys. Aren't we boomers responsible for them some
?
> We have raised a new generation that is to the right of our position
> in our youth.
> =====
> Well the fall of the Berlin Wall really generated a huge shift of
> imaginary possibilities and attitudes. Hence youth fascination with
> sci-fi/technological possibilities rather than different ways of
> social relating; now we gotta show how inconsistent those
possibilties
> are with the organization of capitalism.
>
> (((((((((((
>
> CB: Yes, it is difficult to promote socialism when socialism is
falling down, though Reaganism got going before that.


> "Imagination is more important than knowledge." [Einstein]
>
> (((((((((
>
> CB: Yes, I am reading a bio of Einstein now, and he was a militant
pacifist in Germany during WWI, very brave and principled. And he is just a likeable humanist, real smart, a socialist. But I still am not sure how relativity helps the world, given that most physics gets controlled by the capitalists toward their own ends. Philosophers and physicists have imagined the world in a number of ways, but the thing is to change it into communism from capitalism.
>
> I know this is a very strict standard, but why not the best ethical
foundations for the left ? ==========

Hell, getting people to agree on what is ethical is hard enough. Another question too, is whether we're smart enough to achieve socialism/communism yet; maybe we're just not smart enough right now in an analogous way that people like Galileo couldn't see quantum theory or computers were gonna result from their efforts. As my friend Hana Petros says "for now, the struggle is the alternative". A cup of tea and solidarity....

Ian



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