>Requests (particularly on this list) for a discussion of socialism seem
>usually to be based on the assumption that socialism is the carrot that
>moves the donkey (working class) along.
that's your perception. it's wrong. what people are saying is that you need both the conditions _and_ the rhetoric. you want to run around building a party blah blah. other people want to influence people in their lives because THAT IS WHAT PEOPLE DO! some of us wouldn't even be here _without_ some influencing us by talking to us in positive ways about socialism. i sure as shit wouldn't be here. i'd probably still be amember of the libertarian party (once campaigned for some dork in NYS) because AFTER ALL there are other ideologies (rhetorics, narratives) out there about what is wrong with society. libertarians are one example. the communitarians. etc. etc. if we don't have people working on OUR rhetoric, they'll hear the rhetoric, agit prop, etc. of the other critics of U.S. society.
to grow a plant, you need soil (conditions), seed (think aristotle's physus here!), nutrients (rhetoric) and then you need people to plant the seed and nourish the seed to become a fruit bearing plant (political practice).
kelley
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling