I'm glad, however, that the real argument has finally rose to the surface. I still don't understand why people who have other ideas like Nathan Newman couldn't go to these marches and encourage people to take action in their own communities. It seems like a rare opportunity to have so many people who might listen to your message in one place. Maybe he already does this. It doesn't make much sense to me to be upset at people for trying to stage a mass march--and, when it comes down to it, he's really deriding all of us for going and wasting our money on dessert. This is hardly a way to win converts and seems to be only cynical without any alternative.
I think he's thinking too small. This isn't dessert, it's a succulent appetizer, enticing us to work for the main course--which, incedentally, is also supposed to be tasty so I'm not sure where the "work" actually fits into the metaphor.
All I know is what I've learned the hard way: until you're willing to get in the kitchen, you don't get to bitch about what ends up on the table. Though you flesh out the McDonalds metaphor in your later post
"And the analogy holds, I agree. With bad leadership telling activists to take actions that feel good, but are bad for their political health, no wonder the antiwar movement has chronic heart disease and is on life support."
the only thing on offer is McDonalds, so I don't see any real practical solution. You offer all sorts of interesting ideas--none of which, I would argue are necessarily mutually exclusive to the march we had yesterday and, as Mr. Cox has pointed out, are likely complementary. At the same time, if local organizing is the key, okay: where do we start? What is the name of your competing "franchise" of political sustenance? I'm at a loss for where this organizing is going to come from unless it is spontaneously generated, in which case I still don't understand what is wrong with national marches if they help some germinate other movements. I would also wonder how you think that there aren't already local movements which have fed into these national ones? Several people on the list have already mentioned groups that they went with and I know of at least two other people that came with local groups. So if this march is McDonalds, there are plenty of people who were also eating pretty well at home.
And, since you seem to have ignored Doug's point that this $12 million isn't zero sum and Max's that it is ludicrous to assume it would have been spent at all in absence of the march, I'll reiterate these points.
-s
----- Original Message ----- From: "Max B. Sawicky" <sawicky at bellatlantic.net> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 2:43 PM Subject: RE: Costs of big marches- Re: [lbo-talk] DC
> The presumption that the fabled $12 million is available for other
> purposes
> is groundless. It isn't. If people are willing to buy a million dollars
> worth of pizza, it does not follow that they would forego pizza and spend
> instead on Brussels sprouts.
>
> I also find it amusing that Nathan is aggrieved that more people gravitate
> towards fun than towards work. ANSWER is the McDonald's of today's
> protest
> politics. They know what people want. Nathan doesn't realize, life is
> short, so we eat dessert first. If we lived in Newman Nation, we wouldn't
> be having this conversation. We would be in earnest three-hour meetings
> on
> urban planning.
>
> For the maximization of fun,
>
> mbs
>
>