On Oct 18, 2009, at 3:43 PM, Dennis Brasky wrote:
> Self determination means the oppressed nation BY AND FOR ITSELF
> makes decisions concerning its status without feeling the need to
> get approval...
And exactly how do 'Marxist" Wilsonians think such a granfalloon as a
"nation" is supposed to "make decisions" (let alone be "feeling"
something)? By majority vote in a referendum (by all "nationals"
anywhere in the world? by "nationals" within some defined {by who?}
territory? by majority of those "nationals"? by majority of those
"nationals" actually voting? by simple or qualified majority?)? By
the voice of a single universally recognized national leader (like the
Dalai Lama)? By seizure of power by or negotiated payoff to a
military junta (like the FLN leadership)? By vote of the United
Nations (like the Javan {alias Indonesian} rulers selfdetermining
themselves in West Papua)? By an assembly of merchants, land
speculators, and slaveholders (like the American Continental
Congress)? By informal democratic popular assemblies formed in the
course of a revolutionary upsurge (1917 Russia)?
No: nations, oppressed or not, make no decisions. Decisions are made
by people, individually or collectively, stupidly or reasonably,
arbitrarily or deliberatively, democratically or autocratically. But
not by hypostatized "nations."
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos
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