Joanna
----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Monday, January 3, 2011 8:34:34 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Austerity
Further on conversation with those of no political interest. (Political interest means they are possible recruits to activism -- i.e., already agree with you on one or two or more specific issues.) Chou used to tell visitors what he thought was a very amusing story. One day at the Geneva Conference (to end the First Vietnam War), Chou was the earliest arrival to the conference room. The second arrival was John Foster Dulles. Chou greeted him genially. John Foster Dulles turned away without responding. Chou thought it a great joke that someone made his politics interfere with simple social courtesy and interchange.
Quit worrying about your reactionary genius. Enjoy him in other ways than politics.
This, incidentally, is what I would call a political perspective. One ignores the topic of politics except in relation to people who can (because of _some_ prior areas of agreement (war, supporting teachers; rights of migrants; whatever) can be moved to some political activity (signing a petition; contributing money to sending a person to the April 9 demo, what have you). It's hard on your blood pressure and doesn't change anything to worry about those (majority now) who support the enemy passively (by voting, etc).
Carrol