Eclipsed from the headlines by the ongoing carnage, there is an active
civil resistance in Iraq that opposes the occupation, the torture regime
it protects, and the jihadi and Ba'athist 'resistance' alike.
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 02/19/2008 - 15:09.
You said it, not me.
It is a shame that you have allowed the pseudo-left's idiocies to blind you to the obvious and fundamental reality that capitalism is destroying the planet. Market-driven solutions almost always turn out to be dangerous illusions. At best they are patchwork stopgaps. A system predicated on limitless growth cannot be sustained on a planet of limited resources. It amazes me how people can blind themselves to this.
On a less theoretical level, it is even more depressing that you've allowed yourself to be deceived into thinking the US presence in Iraq is doing that country (or the rest of the world) one lick of good. Every minute the US military remains on Iraqi soil, the problems of jihadism and sectarianism get more intractable. Again, this should be painfully obvious. You are trying to sober up by drinking martinis.
The Euston Manifesto is a mire of self-important, muddle-headed equivocation. No offense.
Obviously all these fun little charts are by definition oversimplified. For instance, I think social control of the means of production and life's necessities—or, failing that, at least rigorous public restraints on private power (e.g. rent control laws, labor standards, environmental regulations)—are the best defense of individual rights and autonomy. So I see "communitarianism" and "individualism" as being fundamentally united, not opposed.
Yes, the radical left's thinking (like almost everything else) has taken a nose-dive since 9-11. Like I said:
The problem with the old "hard left" was a surfeit of ideology. Far from being soft on the jihad, the Stalinists chanted "Hail Red Army in Afghanistan" back in the '80s. The "thinking" (if we may so flatter it) of the new dumbed-down idiot left (as Hakim Bey has written) "fails to achieve even the tarnished and untrustworthy status of 'ideology.'" It is a mere Oedipus Complex, with no positive vision whatsoever of what it stands for—only sanctimonious, analysis-free cheerleading for any bloodthirsty extremoids who seem to oppose "empire."
Now maybe leftist support of the Soviet Union by the '80s (as opposed to the '30s) had already degenerated into a mere post-ideological Oedipus Complex, or was well on its way. But it still strikes me that a "qualitative leap" in the wrong direction—a sort of critical mass of stupidity—has been reached since 9-11.
It is ridiculous to equate Fidel with Stalin (however much the former may emulate the latter). But in all the examples you cite, there were significant libertarian-left dissident currents that didn't go along with the totalitarian bullshit. You yourself have ironically cited the late anarchist Sam Dolgoff's work documenting repression of independent labor militants in Castro's Cuba. Surely you are aware of the heroic anarchist resistance to Stalin's (pro-capitalist, by the way) designs in Spain. Of the Makhnovists getting crushed and Emma Goldman having to flee Bolshevik Russia. I love the way capital-C Communists and Cold War anti-communists alike have a common interest in suppressing this history!
Why Rococo? (Note correct spelling, BTW.)
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The inconvenient facts and unanswered questions surrounding the attacks are legion, but the endemic sloppiness of the self-styled "researchers" is delegitimizing the entire project of critiquing the "official version." The ostentatiously named "Truth movement" is not clearing the air, but muddying the water.
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You said it, not me.
It is a shame that you have allowed the pseudo-left's idiocies to blind you to the obvious and fundamental reality that capitalism is destroying the planet. Market-driven solutions almost always turn out to be dangerous illusions. At best they are patchwork stopgaps. A system predicated on limitless growth cannot be sustained on a planet of limited resources. It amazes me how people can blind themselves to this.
On a less theoretical level, it is even more depressing that you've allowed yourself to be deceived into thinking the US presence in Iraq is doing that country (or the rest of the world) one lick of good. Every minute the US military remains on Iraqi soil, the problems of jihadism and sectarianism get more intractable. Again, this should be painfully obvious. You are trying to sober up by drinking martinis.
The Euston Manifesto is a mire of self-important, muddle-headed equivocation. No offense.
Obviously all these fun little charts are by definition oversimplified. For instance, I think social control of the means of production and life's necessities—or, failing that, at least rigorous public restraints on private power (e.g. rent control laws, labor standards, environmental regulations)—are the best defense of individual rights and autonomy. So I see "communitarianism" and "individualism" as being fundamentally united, not opposed.
Yes, the radical left's thinking (like almost everything else) has taken a nose-dive since 9-11. Like I said:
Now maybe leftist support of the Soviet Union by the '80s (as opposed to the '30s) had already degenerated into a mere post-ideological Oedipus Complex, or was well on its way. But it still strikes me that a "qualitative leap" in the wrong direction—a sort of critical mass of stupidity—has been reached since 9-11.
It is ridiculous to equate Fidel with Stalin (however much the former may emulate the latter). But in all the examples you cite, there were significant libertarian-left dissident currents that didn't go along with the totalitarian bullshit. You yourself have ironically cited the late anarchist Sam Dolgoff's work documenting repression of independent labor militants in Castro's Cuba. Surely you are aware of the heroic anarchist resistance to Stalin's (pro-capitalist, by the way) designs in Spain. Of the Makhnovists getting crushed and Emma Goldman having to flee Bolshevik Russia. I love the way capital-C Communists and Cold War anti-communists alike have a common interest in suppressing this history!
Why Rococo? (Note correct spelling, BTW.)