[lbo-talk] two views of the French riots

Thomas Seay entheogens at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 9 10:27:14 PST 2005


--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote: << while they may start as legitimate demonstration they are quickly taken over by violent mobs infatuated with the delusion of raw power and invincibility. Social justice grievances are merely attributed to these mobs afterwards by political commentators>>

You seem to contradict yourself above. First, you admit that they may start as legitimate demonstrations, but then you say that they are just pure violence that upon which political commentators impose social grievances.

So, do they or do they not have any legitimacy according to you?

The rioters may not always have well articulated political demands and there may have been unjustified attacks (I dont know), but how else could these youths be heard? During my student years in France I dont remember the institutional left addressing this issue in a big way (but I may be wrong), so what are these youths to do....vote PS or PCF or for that matter LCR? Dont think that would have worked. Perhaps they should subscribe to LBO and blow hot air like the rest of us. Not sure that would help much either. Perhaps have a nice peaceful march around the National Assembly? That seems to REALLY work in this country.

One thing is for sure, this issue will be addressed now...they have succeeded in that.

But I would like to know what you would have proposed that they do.

Thomas

<<We are at such a point in mankind's evolution where changed conditions invalidate all our policies that have been so successful even in the recent past, and that presumably have constituted the ideal response to a presumably unchanging and unchangeable human condition. No wonder we are stupefied and confused-but our mistake is the same which many cultures have made before us, namely to force a rigid model upon a fluid reality.

Erich Jantsch - "Design for Evolution: Self-Organization and Planning in the Life of Human Systems"

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