On 16 Feb 2001, at 13:53, SHAIBAL TALUKDER wrote: Date sent: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 13:53:23 -0800 To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > There you go again -bigot conservative philosophy. ... That is, at the least, very lazy and irresponsible thinking. The american system has always been premised on the centrality of awareness of God in politics & public life - in contrast to empire and absolutism (including bureaucracy). A sense of the necessary role of a sense of "Sacredness" is deeply imbedded in the US Constitution, and exemplified by the inspiration of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. by Ghandi's life (who in turn was inspired by Quakers when he was in London), Malcolm X, and so forth. The major progress in extending "rights" in american society have come *because of* religious values, and those have always been defended by "conservatives", ---> while being pissed on by doctrinaire "liberals" (the ideological descendants of dreary absolutist/imperialist french "englightenment" rationalist/materialist philosophers). There are just as many "liberal" bigots as conservative ones. The attempts to implement socialist politics have "enslaved" millions of people in the ghettos of dependency on leftist bureaucratic programs. Here is an interview of a leading black (Jamaican-American) scholar, Orlando Patterson, who excoriates both the "right" and "left" for perpetuating their own interests over those of the people: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/november97/patterson_11-13.html ----- excerpt: ORLANDO PATTERSON: ... In other words--so the situation itself is one in which there is not a simple movement, harmonious movement. There is a change- -positive change is always accompanied by friction; however, our perception of what�s happening is also paradoxical in the sense that both the right and the left, as well as the Afro-American leadership, all have strong interest in perceiving the situation as in negative terms. DAVID GERGEN: Tell me more about that. That�s really-- ORLANDO PATTERSON: Well, for the right wants to castigate the government for the failures of its--all its programs on behalf of the poor, the Afro- American poor. It makes sense they exaggerate the problem to show how we�re losing ground because of the horrendous government interference in policies, so that welfare dependency and so on is increasing and it�s increasing because of rotten government policies. For the left, the liberal group, exaggerating the problem, emphasizing that America is chronically racist seems--is mistakenly believed that this will keep the pressure up for government to intervene even more. And the criticism here is just the opposite of the right, which is that things are bad because the government hasn�t gone far enough, or there�s still, the place is still chronically racist, so there�s still a need for more government intervention. And for Afro-American leadership emphasizing racism as being--America as irredeemably racist--enhances their broker role, obviously, and again mistakenly is based on the view that by presenting an image of almost no progress, you will increase the possibility of greater intervention. And it�s also partly due to the tragic commitment to the ideology of the victim, a very deterministic view, which I�m afraid most Afro-American leadership has adopted, which tends to assume that by perceiving of Afro-Americans as victims you increase the chance of intervention on their behalf. Now, unfortunately, this worked. This is the strategy of the 60's. It�s interesting that the great Supreme Court decision, which struck down school segregation, was based on a determinist view, i.e., social scientists were brought in to show that it created victims, rather than the view that this is the right thing to do. DAVID GERGEN: But today, in effect, it drives pessimism higher, higher than it should be. ORLANDO PATTERSON: Yes. And I think, more important, it�s created a dogma of the victim, which I think is disastrous for people who need to change their own lives. DAVID GERGEN: I understand. So that friction is inherent in progress, but with the kind of arguments that are coming from the right and the left, in your view, it�s making it much more difficult to make other progress. ORLANDO PATTERSON: Yes. Not only that, but it�s also making it difficult to understand the situation. ... -----end excerpt----- Also: see the great German social theorist Jurgen Habermas (eg, go to the search engine at google.com) for high level philosophical discussion of why "system" (socialist) always tries to impose itself on "lifeworld of the people", and creates disastrous results. William Julius Wilson is another example of a great black social scientist who has dared to question the dominant "politically correct" mentality in liberal academia (& the liberal black political power structure). His voluminous research over two decades (which like Patterson's equally excoriates the "right" and "left" for failing to provide a sufficient basis for sustainable social progress, equality and justice), clearly shows that "leftist" social bureaucracy is a huge waste of public money, and rarely solves problems it was supposedly intended to solve. Ironically, the horrible capitalist "conservative bigots" at the helm of enterprise have done far more, via job creation, to lift people up the social ladder. If you want to actually learn about the cultural history of democracy and the roots of the libertarian values in the anglo-american tradition, please read Seymour Lipset's books on the reason that socialism failed in the USA ("American Exceptionalism", etc). In my opinion, american culture will redeem itself by returning to the authentic roots of "freedom" and "liberty" (rejecting al the post- modern, relativistic cr*p, as well as rejecting the absolutism inherent in socialist/leftist politics), and reigniting the creative dynamics of local collectivism (freedom from both leftist bureaucracy and freedom from technocorporate dominated values) while looking forward to the exploration of universalist frameworks (eg, archetypes of human conciousness) in the context of a globalizing society. Additional context for contructivist thought, and other ideas about transcending outmoded ideologies: http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/interviews/Shambhala_interview.cfm/xid,2676/yid,5800264 - http://www.scottlondon.com/ - http://www.rkey.com/thetazone/ - http://www.rkey.com/thetazone/#constructivism ----- excerpt: ... Among its many insights, constructivism adds perspective to the unfortunate historical propensity of humans to objectify the mind as an entity subject to environmental factors. Constructivism is best known as a critique of international relations theories which assert that rational behaviors of nation-states must necessarily conform to the exigencies of an anarchic world system. The framework can be extended to reveal similar patterns in superstitious eschatologies, statements like "The devil made me do it," and a wide range of modern materialist and historicist philosophies, notably extremist forms of Marxism and Social Darwinism. The propensity to "blame" environmental factors as an excuse for human behavior has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, leading to a philosophy of mind that proclaims computerized telecommunication as destiny. Not only are such concepts being promoted with fanatical energy, they are being used to justify social transformations that are increasingly rapid and disruptive. The rising interest in "memes," which holds that ideas acquire people (rather than people acquiring ideas) is an important part of this distressing trend. ... (by the same guy, an explortion of the struggle between progressive proponents of a model of internet governance based on participatory democracy vs commerical interests : http://www.rkey.com/dns/overview.html ) ----- http://www.context.org - http://216.122.74.136//ICLIB/IC03/TOC03.htm - http://216.122.74.136//ICLIB/IC03/CoriGord.htm - http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/FeaturesIssue.html - http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/373.html - A great deal of analysis of why Clinton sold out liberals, betrayed *progressive* values, and succumbed to cynicism, despair and self-interest: http://www.tikkun.org/ - http://www.tikkun.org/end%20of%20clinton%20era.html - http://www.tikkun.org/california%20spiritualityforum.html - http://www.meaning.org/fem/frame_conf.html - Sustainable culture: http://www.resilientcommunities.org ----- excerpt: What's Behind Resilient Communities? Something's afoot in the United States, and Canada, and Australia, and Europe, and Asia and Africa -- all over the world. Increasing numbers of people are saying they want a different life than that being offered by industrial-era society. Paul Ray, in his 1997 Integral Culture Survey: A Study of the Emergence of Transformational Values in America says that as much as 25% of populations in industrial countries are looking for a better way of life. Why? Forces are coming together to shift dynamics in very dramatic ways. There is a growing split between the rich and the poor not only within countries both developed and undeveloped but also, of course, between them. There is a huge increase in population over the last century, which when coupled with production increases, has led to shortages of land, water and clean air. There is growing evidence that global warming and climatic instability, evidenced this year by the number of severe fire and flood problems around the world, threaten current human habitation patterns in significant ways. New forms of nuclear, biological and chemical weaponry are threatening humanity and both nation state rivalries and terrorism create continuing anxieties There is an economic crisis as our reliance on economic growth and affluence collides with changing personal commitment and ecological realities. There is a social crisis as growing poverty and growing wealth co-exist on the same planet. There is a moral crisis as our ability to feel outrage about the state of the world is buried by our busyness and statements from economists and politicians that "we have no choice." There is an ecological crisis as fish stocks are overconsumed, fires burn out of control, forests diminish, land erodes. And there is, above all, a spiritual crisis as we lose sight of our real goals and substitute instant gratification in place of a search for true meaning. At the same time, the seeds for change are growing. More and more people are beginning to examine the ways in which they are living their lives. Those of us doing so are saying that we want less stress and more time. We're saying we want to have a positive impact on the global environment rather than a destructive one. Many are being drawn to a new emphasis on building healthy relationships and towards exploration of spirituality. We are looking for a new way to live -- a more resilient way of life. (continued) ... ----- http://www.nrf.org/ - http://www.nrf.org/cpguide/index.html regards, ep -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Eric D. 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