On 04-May-2012, at 5:57 PM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [silk] Why I Gave Up On 'Social Activism' > Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 08:12:22 -0400 > From: John Sundman <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > > > > Well, one thing about Yoginder Sikand evidently hasn't changed: he > evidently still loves to hear himself talk. > > I didn't finish reading the whole thing; it was too tedious. > > I'm curious as to whether he would have considered any of the following > people "social activist" types, and whether they had any impact: > > Thomas Jefferson > Rosa Parks > Thomas Paine > Mahatma Gandhi > Martin Luther King, Jr > Abraham Lincoln > Benjamin Franklin > Nelson Mandela > Rose Styron > Daniel Elsberg > > But I'm not curious enough to keep reading. He reminds me of Jerry > Rubin, an American self-proclaimed advocate for "the revolution" and > "marginalized people", famous as one of the "Chicago 7" who were put on > trail for raising a ruckus during the 1968 Democratic Party in protest > against, among other things, the US War on Viet Nam. The protests > provoked a police riot. > > In the 1980's Jerry Rubin "saw the light" much in the manner of Sikand, > and became a proponent of capitalism and the "greed is good" ethos of > the "me decade." > > jrs And then there's the traffic heading in the opposite direction: http://nplusonemag.com/leaving-wall-street Having spent about equal time on either side of this fence, I can empathise with parts of both arguments. There is plenty of self-serving narcissism, too little self-awareness in both worlds and very limited ability to translate across the divide. In my experience, most people on each side lack the knowledge, exposure and life experience to fathom the other, choosing instead to rely on caricatures. Ingrid
