[lbo-talk] A Note on an old slogan

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Feb 18 13:07:23 PST 2011


I'm sorry to here that Mario fell for the junk about "generational conflict." That explanation of the 60s has seeriusly screwed up understanding of that period, beginning in the '60s. Generations had nothing to do with it.

Carrol

-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of 123hop at comcast.net Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 1:29 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] A Note on an old slogan

I have only run across one explanation of that: of demanding the impossible and demanding it right now. I got it from a Mario Savio interview. He said that the generation who articulated the messages of the 60's had grown up with the possibility of nuclear annihilation as something that could happen at any moment. And that as a result, there was the feeling that there was only ten minutes left to live, so that if there was going to be change, it would have to happen now.

This made a lot of sense to me.

Joanna

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu>

I have never seen (though they must exist) any analyses of the French '68 slogan, "Be practical, Demand the Impossible."

It's probably regarded by most as mere flippancy. But in fact, it _is_ practical_: A left movement that does not demand the impossible will (a) never discover what is in fact possible and (b) probably won't get anything at all.

Anyone who thinks they can determine what is and what isn't possible should do leftists a favor and go fishing.

Carrol

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