Naunces of expression have some importance but not a lot especially as each is subject to a good deal of cultural history and differing emphasis.
As for calming the war-like drive that the people of the US have been whipped into - I fear it is already too late, too late that is to save those that will die of stavation as winter comes. The death toll by bombs may well soon exceed that of S11, but of stavation will make minor and unimportant in the catastrophe that is about to unfold.
At the moment I am all for America making ground assualts, the sooner the better!
Perhaps when there is a black stream of bodybags arriving in the US the need for something better will dawn on the great mass of people. Good council has been abundant since this stupidity began, not only has it been ignored but it has been censored out of existence. Perhaps, ironically, the best solution is to allow it to go ahead full-steam - let the US, no encourage it by every means, to give up on the ineffective air-war and get its hands dirty on the ground. Afghanistan has a long history of burying armies, my hope is that there is room to bury one more.
A bloody US defeat, may well clear the boards for a much more sensible approach to international matters, Afghanistan is one of the few places on earth which by history and geography is well situated to expound such a lesson. And as I said, unless some miracle is done, the real harm has already been achieved and thousands upon thousands of innocents are as good as condemned to death already.
The irony is that this should happen not at the apex of US imperialism but when it is already a dead duck - I doubt that peace, even if it arrived tomorrow would save many of those most at risk, so I now go to the other extreme, tally-ho America and meet your second Battle of the Little Big Horn and your final Dien Bien Phu.
Greg Schofield Perth Australia
--- Message Received --- From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 04:15:19 Subject: Re: Change the thread title!
>From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org>
>
>At 31/10/01 07:39 +0000, you wrote:
>>>From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org>
>>>
>>>The price the left has had to pay for these remarkable victories by
>>>global
>>>civil society since Sept 11, is to be careful not to act in a sectarian
>>>way. To bite its tongue when ordinary people mourn 5, 000 killed in the
>>>WTC, and not hurl insults on the grounds that 20,000 children die a day
>>>unecessarily in this cruel capitalist world.
>>
>>"Ordinary people"? Not exactly the mot juste, Chris. I think a less
>>lofty tone is called for.
>
>We are obviously not on the same wavelength and I am not sure whether it is
>important.
>
>Anyone subscribing to a list like this presumably thinks it is important to
>think consciously about politics and economics. At least 80% of the
>population do not. They live their lives existentially, and where they have
>political or economic views these are simple reflections in the ideological
>realm of their class position and their limited experience.
>
>They are no less dignified than subscribers to this list. Perhaps more so,
>because they have the dignity of universality.
Yes, there are more pressing issues than whether we're on the same wavelength, Chris, and I don't want to harp on this point or seem pedantic. However, I think that casual use of a phrase like "ordinary people" when referring to the general public serves to objectify others and put them at a distance. I believe this aura of clinical detachment taints leftist public pronouncements too often and is one reason why at least 80% of the public, as you note, pay no attention to politics and economics, seeing them as remote from their lives and concerns. IMO, the left has to do a better job heeding public sensibilities and -- preferably without waving flags -- affirming solidarity with the community at large. In short, it has to convincingly get down with the folks it putatively represents.
I would stress one key distinction: heeding public sensibilities and being responsive to them does not mean the same thing as pandering to the public's worst, most shortsighted instincts. The latter, I fear, is exactly what is done by leftists who counsel political "realism" and think the left should do nothing to try to cool the U.S. public's war fever.
Carl
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