eco-optimism

[Ian Murray]

A cup of
> tea and solidarity....
>
> ((((((((
>
> CB: In the case of socialism/communism , I think the role active
ruling class opposition in the forms of biggest wars ever, fascism,
McCarthyism,  Gramscian hegmonic operations, myriad of other
anti-communist methods has blocked mass consciousness more than
general lack of smartness, as contrasted with barriers to advancing
physics.
========
That was totally true in the past, yes. It seems the challenges for us
now are very Gramscian; creating and placing the best ideas we have
for land use, organizational accountability and participation, health
care access, investment policies, debt eradication, logistics for food
distribution, education, demilitarization...the big grocery list for a
better world. At the same time we have to acknowledge human
limitations and come to a better understanding of why many want to
perpetuate 'dog-eat-dog' competitiveness as the optimal form of social
dynamics and organization. That is, we have to take up G A Cohen's
challenge in the 'Withering away of Social Science':

"Being social animals, exploiters have to feel that their social
behavior is justifiable. When the feeling is difficult to reconcile
with the truth, the truth must be hidden from them as well as from
those they oppress. Illusion is therefore constitutive of class
societies."

While theory alone won't do it, if we don't have the ideas of robustly
thought out alternatives so as to undo the mirage-like character of
capitalism, then fellow citizens aren't likely to mobilize to change
it for the better. The past 24 months have seen more citizens take up
the challenge in Cohen's statement since, perhaps, the fall of the
Berlin Wall, and calls to mind the 'graffiti' on the BW: "Next Time it
Will Be Better". That statement calls for much humility, imo.


>
> On the struggle as the thing, in the early 1900's there had never
even been socialist revolutions anywhere, and thus the general sense
of the realistic possibility of socialist revolution probably was not
higher than today. Yet , Lenin counselled in opposition to Bernstein's
" the movement is everything, the final goal nothing" that "without
revolutionary theory , there can be no revolutionary movement"  In
other words,  even today, when it seems the best we can do is just
"struggle", we may better strive to make a big plan and strategize
===========
Totally agree. At the same time we need to understand that
egalitarianism and non-authoritarianism is not consistent with
vanguardism of any kind.

Ian