[lbo-talk] Islam and socialism

[berber carpet bomb]

On 10/25/07, Mr. WD <mister.wd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/24/07, berber carpet bomb <berber.carpet.bomb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 10/24/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hey, Yoshie, do you ever join any Muslim forums and try to recruit
> > > the members to socialism? I'd be curious what reaction you've gotten
> > > if you have.
> >
> > Dude. You never, ever actively recruit. You set a stellar example of
> being
> > an admirable intellect, etc. Or, you work in a small team, demonstrating
> > comradeship among the grouplet. People observe and want some o' that,
> then
> > they become socialists.
>
>
> What makes you feel so strongly that active recruiting is such a bad
> thing?  Sure, I have received my share of creepy recruiting pitches
> from various sectarian elements in the past, but those have always
> been a turn-off because they're creepy -- not because they're
> recruiting pitches, per se.  So is your objection to recruitment a
> principled one or a tactical conclusion you've drawn from your own
> experience?
>
> At the moment, I'm of the opinion that leftists need to take a page
> from the Evangelical playbook  -- develop our own social, cultural and
> intellectual infrastructure and use that as a recruitment tool.  I
> haven't checked, but I suspect there's a vast amount of Evangelical
> literature on how to start churches, etc. that could be tweaked to
> suit our own purposes.
>
> -WD

heh. i was fucking around referencing a very old discussion on LOB. i have
zero opinion about recruiting since there are no organizations to which I
would belong (think: groucho) that I'd recommend to anyone. (that are
leftist in nature, not anymore. I gave it up for lent) as ComRod Cox
frequently says, there is no left in this country. how could i fucking
recruit?

as for evangelism, their typical is 1. testifying, explicitly avoiding
active recruitment in the old-fashioned sense. you testify and, therefore,
set an example of how xtianity made you successful at love, weight loss,
career, parenting, staying sober, whatever. and 2. starting community
projects such as job transition programs, daycare, kids' camps, singles
dances, etc. etc. By providing alternative institutions at the local level,
they provide often much needed services to churchgoers and non-churchgoers
alike. if the non churchgoers eventually end up being churchgoers, so much
the better.

as for the former, if you want me to get on board with that kind of thing,
THEN you'd get some active hostility and wouldn't have to fabricate my
feelings for me. as for the latter, i have already propounded on the idea,
at length, at least since 2004.

too lazy, but i once forwarded a fascinating link here, an article about how
to talk to young people who pagans, had purple hair, lots of  piercings,
etc. i forwarded it because the evang. org was wringing their hands over
recruitment in the same way we, on lbo, wring our hands over how to talk to
"ordinary people". it was a hee haw laff riot.

Srsly.