Jonathan Lassen writes:
>Thanks LP for posting the review of Hart-Landsberg and
>Burkett's long MR piece. I just picked up a copy
>yesterday, and have been looking it over. I've got my
>own little quibbles with it (not enough emphasis on rural
>China, which I think is desperately important right now, they lump
>pre-1976 China together as 'Maoist' China, etc.), but
>personally I think it's a very welcome and timely piece.
>I hope it continues to spark debate and interest.
I do not like to diminish the MR. Just... put it in perspective. Who
funds it? Have you met the people who do?
(I have met some of them.)
Likewise, with groups using .orgs.
So, here, to save reader's time, is from the Web site of China Group:
China Study Group is a New York based non-profit organization
formed in 1995 to facilitate networking of scholars/activists,
and promote dissemination of info and research works,
Another New York intelligentsia leftist group.
Without roots, perhaps, based on the self-description:
Members of the CSG support the broad goals of the Chinese
revolution that triumphed in 1949, and seek to stimulate
knowledge and debate regarding its achievements and
limitations, as well as to offer a critical perspective of the
radical changes that have occurred in China over the past 25
years and an ongoing analysis of its role in the world today.
No mention of the money, though. Are these rich people in the "CSG
support"?
My guess is -- and this is prejudicial against me, not you -- that these
people are academics or dilettantes without any roots in the cultures
they write about. (Only a guess.)
Nonetheless, China exists without the CSG, so, please, do not interpret
my skeptical view of information from the CSG as a refutation of China.
I think China might possibly be there for a long time -- even without
me.
Ken.
--
I am the passenger
And I ride and I ride
I ride through the city's backside
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah, they're bright in a hollow sky
You know it looks so good tonight
-- "The Passenger"
Iggy Pop, 1977
