> Devine, James wrote: > > >Doug asks: > >> I'm curious what PEN-Lers think a socialist or other variety of > >> "progressive" government should do in a mostly poor, > rural, peasant > >> society. Promote education and industrialization? > >> Wouldn't that > >> undermine the economic and social bases of existing life? > > > >as Bill says, consult the people. > > Well of course. But if we're seriously worried about mass poverty in > the "Third World" - the 2 billion living on <$2/day by the World Bank > definition & count - then that means raising productivity and > incomes. Raising productivity and incomes means education, > technological development, and the disturbance of existing social > structures. Saying "consult the people" can be a way of dodging the > difficulties of that.
any really leftist government could only have come to power with some sort of mass base, some sort of grass-roots organization amongst the people. That means that "consulting" could be people, with the people telling the government what to do. Jim
