[lbo-talk] cruise update: the Ralph angle

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Mon Aug 6 01:03:30 PDT 2007


On 8/5/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> There's almost no popular support in the U.S. for anarchism. It's
> immeasurably small. How do you win friends and influence people?
>
> And what appeal does Nader have? He got 2.7% of the pop vote in
> 2000, and 0.4% in 2004.

I don't think people interested in anarchism's ideas want to be anarchists, or support it like a political party. After all, people who find math useful don't usually become mathematicians.

Also, if there's no use to learning anarchist ideas, because the idea of a seriously democratic workplace sounds hopelessly utopian, what's the point? It'll just bum you out. The people around me certainly don't like to be bossed around, but it makes no sense for me to constantly rub the lemon in the wound.

Many effective people explicitly reference anarchist ideas, but aren't themselves anarchists. Not even talking about Zinn and Chomsky. In my world, there's Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler, well known for democratic workplaces. And Moglen and Stallman, high-profile figures in the tech world.

Anarchism's influence doesn't necessarily show up in mainstream polls, like GDP often obscures much important economic activity.

Tayssir



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list