andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> Peple like Mike P and Charles B who are still
> interesting in fighting about an ex-country with a
> dead religion was a good idea are wasting their time
> and everyone else's. We need people fighting the
> Patriot Act, supporing single payer, opposing bad
> judges and the Iraq War and the rest of the Bushie
> agenda...Move fucking on. This is boring and pointless.
----------------------------
I liked much of your excellent post, and your point in this excerpt about
focusing on current developments. But you're speaking from exasperation if
you're suggesting that discussing the past - in this case, of "an ex-country
with a dead religion" - is "boring and pointless". The rise and fall of the
20th century revolutions have much to tell us about how and why whole
populations radicalize, what constitutes socialism, and under what
conditions, if any, it might be realizable of being a more democratic and
productive system than capitalism. These issues are still with us, at least
in theory; there's always the possibility we could unexpectedly have to
confront them practically, and some aspects of this discussion can help
illuminate how to organize people around the immediate issues you discuss.
It depends really on how these discussions are conducted and knowing when to
move on, which is what I think your post was aimed at.
MG