[lbo-talk] OWS Teach-In: Where to start?

[Carrol Cox]

Think politically. This is not a Seminar or an academic course. The 
slogan doesn't have to have that kind of precision. Just because A 
logically leads to B in a developed argument does NOT mean that as a 
political slogan it leads to B. This is not a courtroom, nor are writing 
a scholarly article for Science & Society or Historial Materialism. We 
are not even writing a Senior Honors Thesis. And above all, we are not 
writing Congressional Legislation or for a Congressional Commit6tee. And 
our slogans need only to POINT TOWARDS the truth, to open up useful 
conversation, NOT to "be true" themselves. I personally also don't line 
"Fight Corporate Personhood," but it isn't true that it will lead to any 
of the b ad ideas that SA fears. That's not how political conversation 
works. "Fight the Corporate Threat to Democracy" is on  the surface true 
and opens up rich and complex conversation. It appeals to vague 
anti-capitalist feelings but doesn't insist on an analysis of capitalism 
but makes room for that. One does not make arguments as in a journal 
article; one tries to frame a conversation. You simply cannot refute a 
Conspiracy Theory; attempts to do so lead to very bad and endless 
conversations. Rather,you try to point towards sdomething else that is 
more interesting than the Conspiracy Theory.

Carrol

On 10/7/2011 12:45 PM, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> On Fri, 7 Oct 2011, SA wrote:
>
>> So does that mean Amnesty International, another fictional person,
>> should have its Bill of Rights protections limited too? Or a legally
>> registered food co-op? Does that mean David Koch, a natural person,
>> should be free to buy elections, just as long as he doesn't do it
>> through Koch Industries Inc.?
>>
>> It's not a good idea that's been miscast. It's just a bad idea, that
>> starts from the wrong premise. If the aim is to get money out of
>> politics, then why not just make the slogan Money Isn't Speech?
>
> You're right. That is better.
>
> Michael
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