[lbo-talk] Taibbi (was Re: Fwd: Antioch College Closing!)

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Fri Jun 15 22:45:23 PDT 2007



>From: "Brian Charles Dauth" <magcomm at ix.netcom.com>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
> > Yes, I think that fixation on "pet issues," identity politics, etc. is
> ultimately a way of avoiding The Issue, which IMO is class.
>
>Well, since the identity my husband and I share have brought each
>of us at various times close to being killed, I must disagree with your
>assessment of identity politics as being a pet issue (though if you
>see queer lives as being no more than a pet concern your position
>makes perfect [non]sense). ...

Identity politics by definition represent particularized issues -- concerns that, no matter how legitimate and urgent, are secondary when considering how to effect a more just society in total. The only issue that offers the potential for fundamental change is class.

During three decades of association with business, I have seen marked gains in diversity of all kinds in the corporate world, yet society overall has regressed and grown more oligarchic during this time, affording far greater security and services of every kind to people of wealth, and far greater insecurity and loss of everyday amenities to people without wealth. US-style capitalism has grown more nakedly plutocratic and brutal in the last 30 years, more evasive of responsibility toward workers, small investors and communities in order to indulge the whims of the corporate elite. All of this has taken place during a time of record advances in "equal opportunity" in the workplace, including unprecedented access of minorities and women to executive positions.

It avails society nothing to grant people equal opportunity to become mofos.

What needs to change is the system itself, and systemic change, in turn, calls for class-based analysis and action.

Carl

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