[Peace-discuss] Guess the author (no googling)

Sat May 8 22:19:39 CDT 2010

 From the annals of actually-existing-socialism:

	"Two men and one pair of pants is not socialism."
	--Nikita Khrushchev

	"Under capitalism we have the exploitation of man by man.
	Under socialism, it's the other way around!"


On 5/8/10 9:19 PM, E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
> I don't want to disappoint John W.,
> but I just don't have any esoteric puns handy right now.
>
> To keep the light of peace burning,
> I offer a small bottle of Chinese definition.
>
> "Socialism means eliminating poverty.
> Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism."
>
> - Deng Xiaoping
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook"
> <galliher at illinois.edu>
> To: "E.Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
> Cc: <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>; "Stuart Levy" <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 2:53 AM
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Guess the author (no googling)
>
>
>> And everyone knows what their parents meant when they said, "We'll
>> see..."
>>
>> In an acute passage in his new "Christianity: The First Three Thousand
>> Years,"
>> Diarmaid MacCulloch discusses G. Gutierrez'"seminal book, 'A Theology of
>> Liberation'":
>>
>> "It is notable that in Gutierrez's discussion of poverty, he did not
>> look back,
>> as did some liberation theologians, to the history of Christian
>> purposeful
>> poverty since the first monks and hermits of the Church, as an act of
>> solidarity
>> with those who had not chosen to be poor. Having surveyed the biblical
>> discussion of poverty, he simply declared material poverty as a 'subhuman
>> situation' and 'scandalous condition', and dismissed notions of spiritual
>> poverty as unhelpful diversions" (p. 976).
>>
>> --CGE
>>
>> On 5/8/10 6:10 AM, E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
>>> The principles of mathematics and physics hold true no matter what one
>>> claims their philosophic and ideologic adherence to be. "2 + 2 = 3
>>> for small
>>> values of 2".
>>>
>>> "...on the principle of equality; in the present time your abundance for
>>> their lack, that their abundance may be for your lack, so that there
>>> should
>>> be equality. According as it is written, He who gathered much had no
>>> excess,
>>> and he who gathered little was nothing short." (2 Corinthians
>>> 8.14-15, the
>>> writer, Paul, quoting Exodus 16.18 )
>>>
>>> "...Fear came on every soul...all those who were of the faith kept
>>> together,
>>> and had all things in common; And exchanging their goods and property
>>> for
>>> money, they made division of it among them all, as they had need. And
>>> day by
>>> day, going in agreement together regularly to the Temple and, taking
>>> broken
>>> bread together in their houses, they took their food with joy and
>>> with true
>>> hearts, Giving praise to God, and having the approval of all the
>>> people; and
>>> every day the number of those who had salvation was increased by the
>>> Lord."
>>> (from Dr. Luke's account in Acts 2.42-47)
>>>
>>> Many of the Christians in the revival of the late 70's and early 80's
>>> loved
>>> to quote and talk about God's provision for their personal prosperity
>>> and
>>> often said "Jehovah-Jireh", "God will provide". While that is true, the
>>> concrete meaning of Jehovah-Jireh is "God will see."
>>>
>>> Hence the fear that God would see the attitude of their hearts, that
>>> they
>>> could trust and give and be concerned about not giving and be concerned
>>> about having a thankful and giving heart.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook"
>>> <galliher at illinois.edu>
>>> To: "E.Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag> Cc: <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>;
>>> "Stuart Levy" <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu> Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010
>>> 11:22 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Guess the author (no googling)
>>>
>>>
>>>> And surely not to be recommended. But the remarkable unwillingness of
>>>> supporters of the administration even to hear the complaints of
>>>> people like
>>>> Stack is the real problem. The willingness of the bien-pensant
>>>> simply to
>>>> dismiss them is outrageous and even dangerous.
>>>>
>>>> Stack wrote, "The communist creed: From each according to his
>>>> ability, to
>>>> each according to his need. / The capitalist creed: From each
>>>> according to
>>>> his gullibility, to each according to his greed."
>>>>
>>>> We don't make progress toward the former by acquiescing in the latter.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 5/7/10 10:01 PM, E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
>>>>> Bombs and flamboyant suicides like immolations and other violent
>>>>> acts are
>>>>> one way of getting a message out.
>>>>>
>>>>> They are very high cost and very high risk. There is no guarantee that
>>>>> the message will be heard correctly and there are usually no second
>>>>> chances.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook"
>>>>> <galliher at illinois.edu> To: "Stuart Levy" <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu> Cc:
>>>>> <peace-discuss at anti-war.net> Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 8:49 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Guess the author (no googling)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Yes, Chomsky. And he's not saying that Joe Stack's response is
>>>>>> anodyne
>>>>>> - specifically, it killed him and at least one other - but that it's
>>>>>> understandable. There are real issues there that can't be dismissed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "It is easy to ridicule how Joe Stack and others like him articulate
>>>>>> their concerns, but it’s far more appropriate to understand what lies
>>>>>> behind their perceptions and actions at a time when people with real
>>>>>> grievances are being mobilized in ways that pose no slight danger to
>>>>>> themselves and to others."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 5/7/10 7:24 PM, Stuart Levy wrote:
>>>>>>> Yeah, saw this a couple of weeks ago. Chomsky, right?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> "Encouraging anti-tax sentiment has long been a staple of
>>>>>>>>> business propaganda."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Right. As with Proposition 13 in CA, whose main beneficiaries were
>>>>>>> businesses, as their property taxes were cut even more than
>>>>>>> homeowners'.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> It is easy to ridicule how Joe Stack and others like him
>>>>>>>>> articulate their concerns, but it’s far more appropriate to
>>>>>>>>> understand what lies behind their perceptions and actions at a
>>>>>>>>> time when people with real grievances are being mobilized in
>>>>>>>>> ways that pose no slight danger to themselves and to others.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Note that he's not saying that the Tea Party's current direction is
>>>>>>> harmless.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, May 07, 2010 at 04:32:31PM -0500, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Feb. 18, Joe Stack, a 53-year-old computer engineer, crashed his
>>>>>>>> small plane into a building in Austin, Texas, hitting an IRS
>>>>>>>> office, committing suicide, killing one other person and injuring
>>>>>>>> others.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Stack left an anti-government manifesto explaining his actions. The
>>>>>>>> story begins when he was a teenager living on a pittance in
>>>>>>>> Harrisburg, Pa., near the heart of what was once a great industrial
>>>>>>>> center.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> His neighbor, in her ’80s and surviving on cat food, was the
>>>>>>>> “widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked
>>>>>>>> all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with
>>>>>>>> promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of
>>>>>>>> service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward
>>>>>>>> to in his retirement.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> “Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the
>>>>>>>> incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the
>>>>>>>> government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement.
>>>>>>>> All she had was Social Security to live on.”
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> He could have added that the super-rich and their political allies
>>>>>>>> continue to try to take away Social Security, too.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Stack decided that he couldn’t trust big business and would strike
>>>>>>>> out on his own, only to discover that he also couldn’t trust a
>>>>>>>> government that cared nothing about people like him but only about
>>>>>>>> the rich and privileged; or a legal system in which “there are two
>>>>>>>> `interpretations’ for every law, one for the very rich, and one
>>>>>>>> for the rest of us.”
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The government leaves us with “the joke we call the American
>>>>>>>> medical system, including the drug and insurance companies (that)
>>>>>>>> are murdering tens of thousands of people a year,” with care
>>>>>>>> rationed largely by wealth, not need.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Stack traces these ills to a social order in which “a handful of
>>>>>>>> thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities — and when
>>>>>>>> it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their
>>>>>>>> gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal
>>>>>>>> government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if
>>>>>>>> not hours.”
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Stack’s manifesto ends with two evocative sentences: “The communist
>>>>>>>> creed: from each according to his ability, to each according to his
>>>>>>>> need. The capitalist creed: from each according to his gullibility,
>>>>>>>> to each according to his greed.”
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Poignant studies of the U.S. rustbelt reveal comparable outrage
>>>>>>>> among individuals who have been cast aside as state-corporate
>>>>>>>> programs close plants and destroy families and communities.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> An acute sense of betrayal comes readily to people who believed
>>>>>>>> they had fulfilled their duty to society in a moral compact with
>>>>>>>> business and government, only to discover they had been only
>>>>>>>> instruments of profit and power.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Striking similarities exist in China, the world’s second largest
>>>>>>>> economy, investigated by UCLA scholar Ching Kwan Lee.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Lee has compared working-class outrage and desperation in the
>>>>>>>> discarded industrial sectors of the U.S. and in what she calls
>>>>>>>> China’s rustbelt — the state socialist industrial center in the
>>>>>>>> Northeast, now abandoned for state capitalist development of the
>>>>>>>> southeast sunbelt.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In both regions Lee found massive labor protests, but different in
>>>>>>>> character. In the rustbelt, workers express the same sense of
>>>>>>>> betrayal as their U.S. counterparts — in their case, the betrayal
>>>>>>>> of the Maoist principles of solidarity and dedication to
>>>>>>>> development of the society that they thought had been a moral
>>>>>>>> compact, only to discover that whatever it was, it is now bitter
>>>>>>>> fraud.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Around the country, scores of millions of workers dropped from work
>>>>>>>> units “are plagued by a profound sense of insecurity,” arousing
>>>>>>>> “rage and desperation,” Lee writes.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Lee’s work and studies of the U.S. rustbelt make clear that we
>>>>>>>> should not underestimate the depth of moral indignation that lies
>>>>>>>> behind the furious, often self-destructive bitterness about
>>>>>>>> government and business power.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In the U.S., the Tea Party movement — and even more so the broader
>>>>>>>> circles it reaches — reflect the spirit of disenchantment. The Tea
>>>>>>>> Party’s anti-tax extremism is not as immediately suicidal as Joe
>>>>>>>> Stack’s protest, but it is suicidal nonetheless.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> California today is a dramatic illustration. The world’s greatest
>>>>>>>> public system of higher education is being dismantled.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’ll have to eliminate state
>>>>>>>> health and welfare programs unless the federal government forks
>>>>>>>> over some $7 billion. Other governors are joining in.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Meanwhile a newly powerful states’ rights movement is demanding
>>>>>>>> that the federal government not intrude into our affairs — a nice
>>>>>>>> illustration of what Orwell called “doublethink”: the ability to
>>>>>>>> hold two contradictory ideas in mind while believing both of them,
>>>>>>>> practically a motto for our times.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> California’s plight results in large part from anti-tax fanaticism.
>>>>>>>> It’s much the same elsewhere, even in affluent suburbs.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Encouraging anti-tax sentiment has long been a staple of business
>>>>>>>> propaganda. People must be indoctrinated to hate and fear the
>>>>>>>> government, for good reasons: Of the existing power systems, the
>>>>>>>> government is the one that in principle, and sometimes in fact,
>>>>>>>> answers to the public and can constrain the depredations of private
>>>>>>>> power.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> However, anti-government propaganda must be nuanced. Business of
>>>>>>>> course favors a powerful state that works for multinationals and
>>>>>>>> financial institutions — and even bails them out when they destroy
>>>>>>>> the economy.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> But in a brilliant exercise in doublethink, people are led to hate
>>>>>>>> and fear the deficit. That way, business’s cohorts in Washington
>>>>>>>> may agree to cut benefits and entitlements like Social Security
>>>>>>>> (but not bailouts).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> At the same time, people should not oppose what is largely
>>>>>>>> creating the deficit — the growing military budget and the
>>>>>>>> hopelessly inefficient privatized healthcare system.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It is easy to ridicule how Joe Stack and others like him articulate
>>>>>>>> their concerns, but it’s far more appropriate to understand what
>>>>>>>> lies behind their perceptions and actions at a time when people
>>>>>>>> with real grievances are being mobilized in ways that pose no
>>>>>>>> slight danger to themselves and to others.
>>>>>>>>
>>
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>

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