At 01:50 AM 12/11/00, you wrote:
>Look, I'm not going to respond to the rancor any more, I wasn't broadcasting
>any, and I didn't REALLY deserve the vitriol you just posted.
Sorry about the vitriolic tone. In the absence of vitriol however,
questions remain...
>In fact I proposed:
>
>1) a switch to "localism"
Define it, and explain how we get there from here. What does this imply
right now in terms of the next indicated step? Without examining this
question, this kind of "solution" remains an abstraction, dissociated from
the actually existing conditions--physical, social, political, economic,
and military--that bear on the question.
>2) adopting a "biocentric" attitude.
How do we get to that "adoption?" It's an academic solution. Great on
paper, but how does it get implemented?
>
>3) adopting a social, economic and political policy to divert, delay, and
>stop "them" on specific issues rather than tilting at the windmill of
>destroying the capitalist system wholesale; and rather than requiring a
>communist revolution as a prerequsite to any action at all to support the
>biosphere.
You've missed one of our main points. Capitalism is not some impregnable
system we will destroy. It will self-destruct when the fuel runs out. And
it is this system, capitalism--driven by the competitive momentum of
markets and capital accumulation--that constitutes the "runaway train"
aspect of the whole situation. You can not tease apart capitalism from
mechanized industrialism. These are two facets of the same system.
Social, economic, and political policy are not decided by a committee of
rational people. These policies are driven by the interests of a class of
people who refuse to relinquish their power, people who themselves are
imbedded in a system.
>
>That, my friend, as general as it is, is MORE of a set of proposals than
>those you call the "Marxies" have presented here on crashlist in the last 6
>months.
They are not proposals. They are visions. There is not a single practical
step articulated.
>
>You end your post with this wisdom:
>
>"Any reversal at all presupposes revolution. Many so-called intellectuals
>(and I'm not anti-intellectual, by any means) need to revist and think about
>the meaning of a simple word: necessity. "
>
>I will temporarily accept that "reversal" is the issue. I disagree with
>your absolute assertion that it requires revolution, but that should not be
>a surprise nor held against me.
>
>so -- and this will be the last time I will ask -- (the crowd cheers
>again!!) --
>
>We have until 2035 to provide the aforementioned "reversal." If you insist
>upon revolution, yours must be in place by 2035.
Pretty arbitrary date. Meanwhile, the US has mobilized its awesome
military machine to gain control over remaining reserves. The stock market
has shattered, precipitating a crisis that brings class war out into the
open. In my own country, the US, existing divisions are exploited to turn
the working class against each other. Fascism has begun to emerge more
openly. Rebellion in Indonesia, Haiti, the Balkans, Ecuador. OPen war in
the Middle East.
>
>What do YOU propose? ("You" meaning any of you "marxies")
Propose first that those who will be most directly and painfully affected
prepare for their self-defense. That we who are not in the line of fire
exercise solidarity with them. Begin now to articulate to those who are
already in crisis WHY they are in crisis and where that crisis is leading.
Develop cadres of leadership now that can provide the organizational
structure for resistance, so when all other hope is lost, there is
something in place for those sinking into misery and repression have
somewhere to go.
>
>What do you propose that will lead to slowing anthropogenic heating by 2035?
I'm not at all sure we can. Public education is important, which means
both finding the resources to conduct that public education, then
overcoming the information hegemony exercised by our rulers. As a
political organizer by trade, however, the first steps are always recruit,
train, organize... your cadres, without which there is no mass movement,
without which there is no solution.
>
>What do you propose that will lead to ending population overshoot by 2035?
We won't. We've already passed the point of no return.
>
>OR ... what do you propose that will lead to mitigating the consequences of
>those threats after 2035?
A mass transfer of political power. But that begins today with
recruitment, education, training, organization...
>
>You have my propositions above, which indeed will lead to some solutions for
>some communities by 2035. and if you wish more detail you can search the
>archives.
>
>What do you prescribe as "necessity"?
Whatever is necessary to defend ourselves when this situation inevitably
devolves, and whatever is necessary to support others who are confronting
the system out of self-preservation. Whatever is necessary to make our
ruling class release their grip on power. Whatever is necessary to
survive... today, tomorrow...
>
>If those issues are too big for you, try even this one:
>
>What do you propose that will make any positive difference to Brother
>Nestor's rainforest and the first peoples who inhabit it ... before it and
>they are lost?
Don't know enough about this specific situation. My work is with oppressed
nationalities and poor folk here in the US, and with Haitians. Right now,
in Haiti, we are just trying to survive an imperialist assault on our
self-determination. If that assault becomes the expansion of the military
occupation, the situation will escalate. Has to be played by ear.
>
>C'mon , Now is the time.
>
>I say it to you all once again:
>
>put up or shut up.
>
>(said with only a minimum amont of rancor in the face of all that vitriol.)
>
>Here, I will say it nicely:
>
>What do you propose that will do anything to aid the biosphere before it is
>too late? or that will do anything to salvage some of humanity and/or
>civilization after it is too late?
Let's prepare to survive first, then get rid of the "problem" politically,
then take power, then we will have the wherewithall.
>
>thanks, ... and I promise not to respond with any of the vitriol which is
>so prevalent lately.
>
>Try it again, please.
>
>tom
>
"If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how to give the
struggle the form appropriate to the political situation."
-Vo Nguyen Giap
"Rather than seeking comparabilities in statistical terms among what are
all too often superficial features of different situations, comparabilities
must be sought at the level of determinate mechanisms, at the level of
processes that are generally hidden from easy view."
-Eleanor Burke Leacock
"Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living humanity
transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as examples, as
motivation."
-Ernesto "Che" Guevara
"Mask no difficulties."
-Amilcar Cabral
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