On Aug 5, 2006, at 2:26 AM, Gar Lipow wrote:
> > As to left critics of Hezbollah, we are again encountering what I
> have
> > often called sandbox politics and what Yoshie has labelled
> > "Resolutionary Socialism." Verbal criticisms of Hezbollah by u.s.
> > leftists will have _no_ material impact in the world. They merely
> > provide a bit of smug self-satisfaction on the part of the critic
> for
> > his/her personal moral superiority.
>
> Ultimately our target is the U.S. population. I don't know how U.S.
> supporters of Palestian rights will ever turn U.S. public opinion
> around, other than to keep on demonstrating and writing letters, and
> holding forums and doing the other things we do that don't seem to
> have much effect. Right now we have two chances: slim and none. But
> if we start including unconditional praise for Hizbolla in our
> attemps at public education it seems to me that slim is going to leave
> town.
Evidently the subtleties of Coxism elude you. According to the Commissar of the Cornfields, trying to win Americans to antiimperialist politics is a waste of time, because it's best just to talk to ourselves and the revolutionary moment will happen when you least expect it anyway. Instead, it's best to offer rhetorical support to armed entities half a world away - which is not a form of resolutionary anti-imperialism, because, well, just because. And emitting empty anti-imperialist missives from the American midwest is not an exercise in smug self-satisfaction and personal moral superiority for the same reasons.
Doug