[lbo-talk] The Neoliberalization Of Higher Education: What’s Race Got To Do With It?

[Wojtek S]

[WS:] That is about right with a minor correction - the most engaged are
NIMBY people opposing some socially beneficial initiative (anything from
public transit to social service program) and anti-abortion and anti-gay
rights crowd.  Identity politics does not seem to as big of an affair.

It is amazing how many people still live in the illusion created by a few
radical student protesters in the 1960s - thinking that the whole country
will be like them if only properly "organized."  Well, the rest of the
country went for Nixon while a few student radicals went to the streets.

Wojtek

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:55 PM, Somebody Somebody
<philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:


> Shane: But the reason for the pathetic failure of Obama is also his refusal
> to advocate, or even his covert opposition to, any program for real social,
> political, or economic change. His excuse has been precisely that advancing
> such programs would be met with opposition even more violent than the stupid
> foxist outcry against his ineffective compromises and that he would be
> blamed for the ensuing "fearmongering mudthrowing and negativism." Clinton
> had much the same excuse. The cowering, whimpering liberals like Obama are
> in fact the main clowns in "this vile political circus."
> Somebody: OK, but why is it the sole responsibility and burden of Obama to
> advocate radical reform in this country? Are the workers of America silly
> putty in the hands of the President, taking the shape and imprint he
> chooses? Apparently so. Let's face it, most Americans aren't fighting for
> any progressive change whatsoever. The ones most engaged are, by and large,
> involved in what's been unfairly characterized as "identity politics" on
> this list.
> Honestly, I'm amazed that the executive committee of the ruling class in
> Washington institutes ANY progressive policies in this country, considering
> the utter lack of any working class resistance, whether measured in terms of
> hours lost in strike activity, or number and scale of public protests or
> riots. Why, for instance, do we have a government bureaucracy that seeks to
> protect rare wildflowers or endangered insects, and will impede private
> developers to that end? Because a few environmental groups would raise a
> stink otherwise? Or because the bureaucracy also has a progressive life of
> it's own?
>
>
>
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