Diminished Expectations (Re: [lbo-talk] plea from gay Iranian)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 6/30/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Jun 29, 2006, at 8:22 PM, B. wrote:
>
> >  Hope you're not suggesting that because the workers' movement (or
> > lack thereof) in the US has been sclerotic for the past 25-30
> > years, that ideals of radical economic, workplace, etc., democracy
> > should be abandoned. (Actually, I dunno if you even embrace those
> > ideals to begin with, but those are ones I hold.)
> >
> >  A fine essay you sent to the list by George Orwell on power-
> > worship  complained about folks who saw current trends as
> > indicative of permanent ones. Maybe the workers' movement sucks
> > now, but that doesn't mean some kind of Chavez-ian strong man-ism
> > is the answer, either. (Sorry for that clumsy phrasing there.) The
> > lefty messiah thing ain't my bag!
>
> I'm not suggesting abandonment at all. I was trying to explain why
> people were excited about Chavez and not making more radical demands.
> The old ideas have lost some of their popular appeal, don't you think?

How can you entertain questions from the outer planets seriously, in
the midst of the attack on Palestinians?  That's why I believe that
leftists in the US and the rest of the rich nations don't really give
a damn about what happens to the peoples their governments attack.
They aren't _even mildly embarrassed_ about it either.  If we had one
tenth of democracy that Venezuelans practice, we wouldn't be letting
Tel Aviv grind down Palestinians, make Iraqis abandon their own
country in droves, and the list continues.

-- 
Yoshie
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