> -----Original Message-----
> I think that's a great spirit, but for it to have any meaning
> and to be rooted in any concept of justice, the "we" must
> *first* understand themselves to be victims of some
> oppression and the "they" the victimizers and oppressors.
I fundamentally disagree. The most convincing ideologies are those claiming a better design for the future or for more people or both, not the ones trying to settle the past scores for some minority or special interest groups. The latter sounds like vindictive whining or being a sore loser. It is one thing if victimization claims are merely the means of demonstrating the superiority of the proposed system, and a very different thing is they become the purpose in itself. I have no problems with the former, but hearing the latter makes me puke.
I may also add that if you want to use victimization claims to bolster your alternative, you need to say how your alternative will solve the causes of those victimizations. Thus far, lefties and liberals have no alternative of any kind at least since Johns Kenneth Galbraith - not just on this list but in general - all you hear is whining about what "they" do to "us". The only semblance of an alternative I heard on this list is Charles' occasional references to socialism (without elaborating on specifics) and Chuck0's references to anarchist cooperatives (again, without elaborating on specifics). Likewise, the same thing dominates the pages of The Nation or Dollars and Sense, which are in addition peppered with speculations how to unseat Repug politicians.
There are basically two movements in the US liberal left today - one is running toward the "center" or rather pursuing a fatamorgana called the "center" by the DLC types, and the other one is running away from the "center" or rather escaping "way into the left field," utopia, delusions, weirdness, counterculture, and nihilism. The first one may be more acceptable to the mainstream, the second is repulsive to most, and neither offers an alternative to the dominant Repug, neo-con, neo-lib, market ueber alles paradigm.
Bitching and whining is easy, but offering a solution requires not just some thought and effort, but above all getting out of the rut of the "received wisdom."
Wojtek