From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 13 2005 - 05:20:46 BST
Hi Erin,
[you wrote]
I just don't get why you don't think you pander to partisan politcs?
How can you keep saying republican this....conservative that..and not be
pandering to partisan politics? Wasn't there a proposal to stick to issues and
not revert to the labels? And please you can't blame that on Platt too.
[Arlo]
I use "conservative" and "liberal" when I am in dialogue with Platt. He's made
it clear those are his poles, and he's stickin' to 'em. I tried using
scarequotes with them, to show I was using them in a discordant manner.
But I think its important to note that its not that I don't "get" a "leftist"
and "rightist" political meter, its the absolute dichotomization of "All Good"
and "All Evil" that these labels, and those that employ them, bring.
So to me, the dichotomy was what was distracting, not saying so-and-so policy is
leftist or rightist. But things like "censorship is typical of the liberal
mindset" (with its polar "conservatives never use censorship"). That said, I
find those who do nothing but tow a party line to be caught up in the
distraction of partisan bickering, being more concerned with "my team" than
anything else.
You also have to remember that modern "conservatives" and "liberals" are snug up
next to each other on that ol' left-right meter. Partisan bickering would make
you think they are extreme antonymns. In reality, they are pretty much the
same. Marx would have laughed at being called a "liberal" (as the term applies
today). Many feel that whatever democracy we had early on was sold out and
usurped by wealth and big money interests, to which both "liberals" and
"conservatives" pander to (oligarchy). Even Michael Savage, about as far right
a commentator as you can find on the radio (look up his "Savage Nation"
website) has condemned the Bush administration for cronyism the likes of which
has not been seen since Napolean (his words). Do we think the Clinton white
house was much different? My point is that the political dialogue is, and
*should be* much broader than this simple dichotomy, and people need to realize
that maybe (as Khaled eloquently points out) "both" parties are right (or
conversely, both parties may be wrong), and to stop this innane "my party all
good, yours all evil" idiocy.
I don't think you need to be "apolitical", Erin. I think a good solution is to
use the right-left meter to apply to beliefs, not to people. And to find a way
to look across the spectrum for solutions, and mix/match/select based on
Quality, not on "my team must defeat the evil so-and-so's". And to remember
that on the big Left-Right meter, todays "liberals" and "conservatives" are
both about 1mm apart somewhere just right of center.
To clarify futher, I'm not saying "I" am suffering attacks from the left and
right, I said that both the liberals and conservatives use fear tactics to
distract popular dialogue away from examination of the system. This is what I
mean, and MSH had argued much earlier, that both conservatives and liberals are
really not that different. Both are pawns to wealth and power interests. Both
battle each other, but only to secure power for itself, not really to instigate
change or solutions. We are swept up in the "go team!" rhetoric and lose sight
of the critical dialogue.
Marx, as I've said, would abhor modern "liberals" as vehemently as he'd abhor
modern "conservatives". When Platt calls welfare "Marxist" it is irritatingly
funny. Welfare is not a solution to poverty, Marx would say, merely a
capitalist inspired band-aid to keep the working class distracted and placated.
What Marx would say is "abolish welfare", abolish social security, abolish food
stamps, minimum wage, unemployment, workers compensation, mandatory health care
for full time employees, work week and age restrictions to labor, and all those
programs, and then we'd be very shortly on the road to revolution, when the
majority would truly see their place in the world without the social trinkets
thrown at their feet by both "liberals" and "conservatives".
Alles klar?
Arlo
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Oct 13 2005 - 05:25:54 BST