[lbo-talk] Faustian Bargains

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sun Feb 12 10:39:15 PST 2006


Brian wrote:


>> . . . but the more likely reason today -- when China is clearly
>> capitalist and in some ways more capitalistic than many longer-
>> standing capitalist countries -- is that the revolt of Tibetans
>> against China began with the support of the CIA
>
> Who cares how it started?

When the leaders of a group -- the Tibetans, the Miskitos, the Hmongs, the Iraqi Kurds, etc. -- make a Faustian bargain like agreeing to be backed by the CIA in particular or Washington in general, it changes the estimation of the leaders -- though not of the peoples led by them -- in the minds of people who know: the estimation goes up in the minds of rightists, and the estimation goes down in the minds of leftists (excepting the confused souls in Hollywood). It's up to the Tibetans to decide whose opinion they value. Naturally, many people value Washington's opinion more than international leftists'. That's perfectly understandable -- after all, when you get on the good side of Washington, you get money, weapons, big media exposure, diplomatic support, etc., but when you get on the good side of international leftists, you get only articles and books, Pastors for Peace caravans, and things of that nature (the money men of the left are mostly gone -- you have only Hugo Chavez, who isn't poor but not quite as rich and powerful as Moscow once was and really needs to spend money on his own people at home first and foremost). :->

Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>



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