[lbo-talk] OWS Demands working group: jobs for all!

// ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Thu Oct 20 16:38:12 PDT 2011


On Oct 20, 2011, at 6:11 PM, SA wrote:
> I get the sense that a lot of people here are so excited by OWS that they're unwilling to believe that an appreciable fraction of the people in it hold views so much at variance with their own, so they just assume that behind the rhetoric there must be a left politics that they could conceivably get behind. But in these cases, there isn't.

I get behind them for the same reason I get behind you or others on the list. I have a strong suspicion do not share your philosophical framework and I do know that I do not share your political approach or prescriptions. I get behind them because they are trying (and succeeding, but that’s not my reason) to rally for the same sorts of things as well as against the same sorts of things that worry me. If by “views” you mean such things as taxation, workers=women/native/immigrant rights, death penalty, etc, then I I am fairly certain it's not true that their views are in variance from my own. If by “views” you mean underlying beliefs, then I am reminded of Russell who noted that he was not willing to die for his beliefs since he could very well be wrong.

There is a meta issue here I guess… to a garden variety hobbyist like me, what they are doing *is* left politics (because (a) I do not see a political science that can substitute, (b) I am not trained in the theories and theorems of what exists as political science). You have a good idea that things are shitty and you have an idea why. You decide to make your dissatisfaction, anger, public - get together with others, work your way through this, keep your ears and minds open; and from this you build structures, theories, so on.

I am excited about OWS because it’s working.

—ravi



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