[WS:] All I am saying is that this is what the Repug noise machine has been spewing for for the past twenty plus years, so I do not need to hear this shit from someone who is supposed to be on "our" side. The trick is knowing what to say when. One may not like his parents smoking crack, but one does not say that in front of a cop. Or using another analogy, some Jews were capitalists, but Germany ca. 1935 was not the appropriate place and time for bringing this point up.
As to your argument that public mood depends on material living conditions - true, but only to a point. Fear mongering is deeply embedded in the US culture in bad as well as good times - deTocqueville already complained about it. It is an integral part of selling anything from snake oil to public policy and to real estate in the "afterlife." And this is what really turns me off about this country's political culture, regardless of whether it is labeled "essentialist" (whatever that means) "transshistorical" or shit on a stick.
Alan: "the Obama won while explicitly eschewing fearmongering"
[WS:] This assumes that all those who pulled the lever for Democrats in 2007 did so for Obama rather than against Bush. I doubt. I think that some of them (like myself) might have been impressed by the civility of Obama's discourse (even though I was not that impressed by his policy proposals,) others simply wanted to sacrifice the party in power for "bring bad times,"
and since the "bad times" are still with us, the latter sacrificed another set of politicians.
As to the rest of your posting - I gather that you do not like what I think about certain things in America. Well, c'est la vie, so we have to agree to disagree on those things.
Wojtek
On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:35 AM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> On Nov 8, 2010, at 6:46 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>
> Re: "I'm the one who thinks that in the US antipathy towards the
>> government
>> is both rational and praiseworthy."
>>
>> [WS:] If I wanted to hear anti-government rant, I would join a right wing
>> or libertarian group. They do it much better.
>>
>
> Among things you don't understand are syntax. "Anti-government" signifies
> a general attitude towards government as such, government in the abstract.
> "Antipathy towards *the* government" signifies an attitude towards a
> *specific* government, that corrupt gang ruling "in the US." The people
> know that the government (called "Washington" or "City Hall" or "Wall
> Street") does many needed things--badly, and many more of vicious
> things--quite well.
>
> Shane Mage
>
> The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according
> to his need. The capitalist creed: From
> each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
>
> Joe Stack (1956-2010)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>> Shane: "your caricature of the philistine notion of mass irrationality"
>>>
>>>>
>>>> [WS:] If there is any caricature here, it is the above statement. I did
>>>> not
>>>> say it is "irrationality" but rationality of a different kind than the
>>>> Weberian "purpose rationality."
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Well, you are the one who wrote about "irrational antipathy towards
>>> government." And I'm the one who thinks that in the US antipathy towards
>>> the
>>> government is both rational and praiseworthy.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> It is the same rationality as one underlying magic rituals since the
>>>
>>>> beginning of humankind. Check out Malinowski's anthropological studies
>>>> of
>>>> myth and magic or Meyer & Rowan's
>>>> work on myth in modern organizations.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> How amusing to hear that these eminent empirical sociologists have some
>>> pipeline to the "beginning of humankind." Despite being good god-fearing
>>> Christian gentlemen, they have not the least conception of why every
>>> myth,
>>> every religion, every magic ritual expresses the notion that *the gods
>>> are
>>> to be feared. the gods are greatly to be feared*
>>>
>>> Shane Mage
>>>
>>> God said to Abraham, kill me a son
>>> Abe said man, you must be putting me on
>>> God said you can do what you want, Abe
>>> But the next time you see me coming, better run.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [WS:] So face it, lefties, the voters decided to sacrifice Democrats to
>>>
>>>> avert bad luck and vent their irrational antipathy towards government.
>>>>>> Blaming O's administration is blaming the victim of this sacrifice.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So you say nobody can know what motivates
>>>>> Obama/Summers/Geithner/Bernanke
>>>>> &
>>>>> co., but you *know* that the *Obama-2008* voters who dumped the dumbos
>>>>> were
>>>>> motivated (to stay home, to vote Repugnicon, to spoil their ballots) by
>>>>> your
>>>>> caricature of the philistine notion of mass irrationality. Staying
>>>>> home
>>>>> as
>>>>> an apotropaic ritual like the Sacrifice of Isaac!
>>>>>
>>>>> ___________________________________
>>>>
>>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>>
>>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>