obviously I had to look first and not to denigrate the list members but the list seems to function as a vent rather than a conduit.
> We have fallen from the golden age to the age of lead
> -- an old lament.
I didn't mention a golden age, far from it, rather we were looking forward to the new brighter future, expectations were high. Youthful optimism perhaps.
>
> the educated of the left
> > have become rubber
> > kneckers passing comment under pseudonyms,
>
> I take it that is a sniipe at my handle. My name is
> Justin Schwartz of Evanston, IL. I use the pseudonym
> -- I don't notice you using your full name either --
it's in my email address ?
> for professional reasons, OK? Is that a fucking crime?
> Class treason?
what are you afraid of, if you're so important to need a pseudonym
then surely you're important enough to be heard ?
>
> I don't know what you are impressed at and I haven't
> wondered at anti-intellectualism since 3d grade.
well this is kind of my point, me working class drone getting the bus
to work smoking woodbines and reading the daily mirror you, and the
other starlets, with the knowledge , intellectual acumen and keys to
the executive washroom. You were our insiders.
I say' you 'assuming you were of that generation or close to, if not
then substitute 'them'
Instead of getting down to work all we saw were silly pranks, if I
wanted to make my place of employment better sitting in the lunch room
chanting wouldn't have got very far.
>
> Tariq Ali (your example) and most of the others were
> trying to make the world better for the oppressed and
> the exploited, as you can easily find out by readingg
> their voluminous writings.
political commentators are like soccer mums, a lot of screaming and shouting but they have been side lined, they're there for those who want to listen and for appearances sake but actual effect is negligible
>
> In some ways the world is worse in some ways, better
> in others. Don't indulge in this Golden Age fantasy.
As I said I'm quite aware of the world I was born into, I didn't mention any golden age so I don't know why you brought it up
>For money money there has been
> considerable improvement
quite
>since, say, November 1942,
> midnight of ther last century, with the Nazis knocking
> at the doors of Stalingrad, Jim Crow and lynch law
> firmly entrenched in America, Japanese militarism
> dominating the Far East.
and how exactly have things changed, different cups different saucers same tea.
> But opinions can differ and
> there is not exactly any objective test.
workers and their conditions ? have they got better ?
>But even if
> it were worse overall, it is absurd to blame that on
> the student demonstrators of the 60s who struggled for
> racial and social justice, women's liberation, and
> socialism. If they failed in part -- in part! not
> altogether -- does that mean the deterioration is
> their fault rather than the fault of the other side?
>
in part ?? If your adversary is playing the game and all you do is
write on how your adversary is playing the game what will happen ? The
students of the 60's were supposed to be the leaders of today, and I'm
not talking just political but commercial as well. If the present rate
of incarceration continues one in four citizens will have spent time
in prison, we saw how survivors of a great natural tragedy were
treated, like criminals, send in the military first to secure the
area, can the US worker afford WalMart prices ?
Gary? ride si sapis