[lbo-talk] Private vs. public ownership

[Carrol Cox]

It seems that for Wojtek the world consists of language and only language,
and that words are not addressed to anyone who has ever done anything but
sit isolated listening to all words that come out of the radio. It's a
strange world he occupies. I'm not sure how to label this, though "vulgar
idealism" comes to mind -- which probably spouts from vulgar mominalism.

Public discourse in fact _never_ occurs in isolation but is always enmeshed
and inseparable from the daily practice of whatever segment of the
population (always a very small segment) who even know of the existence of
the particular words being spoken on a particular occasion.

What leads people in the first place to (a) turn on the tv or the radio and
(b) tune in this station rather than that station. No matter how loud
someone yells it won't hammer anything in to the head of someone who doesn't
even know of the existence  of the auditorium (station, what have you) in
which the word are being spouted.  Someone took a poll in Iowa back during
the Army-McCarthy hearings (all of which were broadcast on tv) -- and it
appeared that a sizable proportion of the population of Iowa had never heard
of Joe McCarthy!

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Wojtek S
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 11:50 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Private vs. public ownership

Jordan:  "more to do with your complaint out of one side of your keyboard
about propaganda and your claim out of the other side of your keyboard that
the best thing to do is to make shit up."

[WS:] OK then, what do you suggest as the best way of fighting propaganda?

 rational discourse does not seem to be very effective, judging from the
case of the United States.

Wojtek

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Jordan Hayes
<jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com>wrote:


> Wojtek writes:
>
>  do ignore it if you do not like it.
>>
>
> It's got nothing to do with whether I "like" it (whatever that means), and
> more to do with your complaint out of one side of your keyboard about
> propaganda and your claim out of the other side of your keyboard that the
> best thing to do is to make shit up.  It just makes it easier for me to
know
> that you don't take yourself seriously; that means I don't have to spend
any
> time on that question either.
>
> /jordan
>
> (do you "like" how I anthropomorphized your keyboard?)
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