Abstracting from the false references to Marv, a core point remains, I think of great importance: The Prison SYSTEM has a coherence or unity which cannot be grasped by an individualist perspective. To focus on the (relatively few) instances of individuals who are a clear and present danger to others is to blind oneself to what the Prison System is and does.
Surely, there is no one in prison at the present time who represents as clear and present danger to the physical well-being of Americans as do the likes of Obama & Clinton.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Marv Gandall Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 7:01 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] New Normal Redux
On 2013-11-10, at 4:12 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> Marv Gandall: I wasn't commenting on your statement above, but on Mike
> Yates' noting with approval your statement last week "that a real
> left, when it came into existence, would (among other things) demand
> that the Prison System be abolished...Well, most activists now are
> close to demanding that, and I suspect that it would be attractive to
about 5% of the population."
>
> ----
>
> Before invoking the nebulous concept of "attractive to the public"
> would it it not be useful _first_ to explore the actual content of the
proposal?
> "Prison _system_," incidentally, is the subject, NOT, "Prisons." I
> know that in commonplace usage the term "system" means something like
> "all those things out there someplace," but must we be confined to
> that sense of the word? Can't we, for a minute, be serious
> intellectuals (or pretend to be) and take our terminology seriously? If,
as is possible, "the prison system"
> does not exist, debating its popularity would seem pointless. If it
> _does_ exist, dit is still pointless to debate its (hypothetical)
> popularity until we have some notion of what are the priciples defining
that SYSTEM.
>
> The principle describing Marv's statement above, I submit, is that
> political discussion is inappropriate on lbo-talk, and he enforces
> that principle by shifting the topic away from either the prison
> system or capitalism to chit-chat about public opinion.
> Carrol
Carrol, with all due respect, the comment about public opinion to which you're objecting - "I suspect that it would be attractive to about 5% of the population" - was YOUR comment, not mine. I was quoting you. It can be found here:
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20131021/003066.h tml
My reference to your comment is here:
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20131021/003087.h tml
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