[Peace-discuss] But I'm a Cheerleader!
Laurie Solomon
ls1000 at live.com
Fri Aug 12 13:38:24 CDT 2011
>It's important to get things right, to call things by their right names.
This statement sort of hits home for me in that it is something that I often
insist on and seek in my postings; but it is also something that I recognize
and am willing to accept as being a "relative" matter where the definition
of "right" is always dependent on one's perspective, biographically
determined point of view, and normative values and beliefs. That one ever
comes to any sort of common intersubjective understanding is typically a
by-product of negotiation and conversational back and forth. Despite the
fact that, for me, my side to any discussion is always the right side, I am
aware that there is always an infinite number of sides to every issue and of
answers to any question with all of them being in their own way legitimate
and valid.
>In the absence of an accurate analysis of the situation, the best will in
>the world can do the right thing only by accident.
Even if one accepts this statement at face value, the notions of "accurate
analysis" is always up for grabs; and it is presumptuous of anyone to assume
that their notions of an accurate analysis is the one and only true and
absolute one whose truth and validity is unquestionable and unproblematic.
We live in a world of uncertainty and in which the absence of accurate
analysis of the situation is a"fact of life"; hence, in an absolute sense,
we can only do the right thing by accident. Doing the right thing is always
a moving and changing working premise that holds until further notice in
light of one's current information and understandings.
>Consider all the good-hearted people who thought that they were working
>against the war and for economic justice by supporting Obama.
>They were the more deceived.
First, it is questionable if that is really what they were working for of if
that was really merely a code to justify their working for what they thought
would be in their own best vested interests. Secondly, given their
knowledge and experience of past political history and experience regarding
campaign promises, broken assurances and rhetoric, and the like, one has to
wonder if they had not set themselves up to be deceived, were open to false
hope and consciousness, were willing to be fooled, and the like. Thirdly,
in light of the fact that those good-hearted people who find that they are
being deceived over and over again by officials and politicians, union
leaders and corporate executives, teachers and the media, among others, they
typically still refuse to rebel and take any sort of drastic action or
measures but continue to rely on the failed political processes of
elections, petitioning their public officials, writing letters to the
editors, blogging, demonstrating, writing articles and books, going on TV
and radio, etc. in hopes of bringing about change. They insist on playing
the game according to the rules of the game that work against their ever
winning the game. They may complain but they still accept and perpetuate
the consent that has been manufactured for them in spite of any experiences
or information to the contrary.
-----Original Message-----
From: C. G. Estabrook
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 11:47 AM
To: Laurie Solomon
Cc: Peace-discuss List
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] But I'm a Cheerleader!
It's important to get things right, to call things by their right names.
In the absence of an accurate analysis of the situation, the best will in
the
world can do the right thing only by accident.
Consider all the good-hearted people who thought that they were working
against
the war and for economic justice by supporting Obama.
They were the more deceived. --CGE
On 8/11/11 11:30 PM, Laurie Solomon wrote:
>> Contemporary communications technology is an advance over the soapbox and
>> megaphone, even though the latter produced progressive revolutions in the
>> capitalist era.
>
> Yes, but only in a technological sense. I would suggest that the older
> technology was more effective in its era than is contemporary
> communications technology in today's environment where people are
> overloaded with messages, jaded and numbed with respect to being shocked
> by any content or presentation, and are only interested in entertaining
> sound and video clips.
>
>> Cheerleading for national armies - or Obama - is regressive, and academic
>> intellectuals - especially in the ideological disciplines like political
>> science - have overwhelmingly been servants of power.
>
> Of course, cheerleading for any established belief systems and/or
> institutions can be (and often is) regressive and conservative; and it is
> not only the social sciences (or as you call them the ideological
> disciplines) that are overwhelmingly servants of power. One only has to
> take a look at the natural sciences and engineering disciplines and their
> academic and contract research activities in the development of
> technologies that advance weaponry, spying, governmental control, and the
> promotion of capitalist profits. One only has to look at the sorts of
> testimony that natural scientists and engineers has furnished in official
> hearings to support the goals of the establishment powers and authorities.
> The arts are not completely free from the same sort of criticism either;
> they often are also cheerleaders for the establishment and servants of
> power.
>
> -----Original Message----- From: C. G. Estabrook
> Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 7:28 PM
> To: Laurie Solomon
> Cc: Peace-discuss List
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] But I'm a Cheerleader!
>
> Contemporary communications technology is an advance over the soapbox and
> megaphone, even though the latter produced progressive revolutions in the
> capitalist era.
>
> Cheerleading for national armies - or Obama - is regressive, and academic
> intellectuals - especially in the ideological disciplines like political
> science
> - have overwhelmingly been servants of power. But the few who haven't -
> from
> Wright Mills to Chomsky - have been important.
>
> What may be an good opportunity for activism will occur in DC in October:
>
> <http://october2011.org/welcome>. --CGE
>
>
> On 8/11/11 6:36 PM, Laurie Solomon wrote:
>> I realize that your response is an attempt to trivialize and make fun of
>> my observation; but in all seriousness, standing on a wooden box on a
>> city street corner and harangue the passers-by in the fashion of London's
>> Hyde Park is still acting like a propagandist issuing academic
>> ideological polemics in contrast to being an actual activist who is
>> involved in taking "real" actions rather than engaging in the action of
>> talking about taking action - in my humble opinion. Things like taking
>> passive resistance, general strike, active boycotting of companies and
>> institutions, and disruption of normal daily life and its everyday
>> activities are more like the substantive activities of an activist as
>> opposed to the symbolic activities of protests, marching with placards,
>> and engaging in debates and conversations which - in my opinion - are the
>> activities of a polemicist, a propagandist, and/or an academic. The
>> latter fit your notions of cheerleading as much as academic Political
>> Science - and for that matter all social science and some natural
>> science - papers and presentations and military music. All education
>> involves indoctrination and internalization of ideas, approaches,
>> perspectives, points of views, beliefs,values, and ideologies; thus, the
>> citing of articles, the reposting of articles the repetitively expresses
>> various versions of the same information, and exercise of critical
>> analysis for purposes of educating people is just another form of
>> cheerleading for one's position as much as any other form or attempts to
>> politically or otherwise educate the public and usually comprises
>> preaching to the choir in terms of its effectiveness in changing minds.
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: C. G. Estabrook
>> Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 4:47 PM
>> To: Laurie Solomon
>> Cc: Peace-discuss List
>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] But I'm a Cheerleader!
>>
>> Yeah, I liked it better when I could stand on a wooden box on a city
>> street
>> corner and harangue the passers-by.
>>
>> On 8/11/11 2:19 PM, Laurie Solomon wrote:
>>>> political science is to science as military music is to music -
>>>> cheerleading, in both cases. --CGE
>>>
>>> As blogging and posts to list servers and mailing lists is to political
>>> activism.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message----- From: C. G. Estabrook
>>> Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 12:47 PM
>>> To: Peace-discuss List
>>> Subject: [Peace-discuss] But I'm a Cheerleader!
>>>
>>> [In spite of the prose, the following letter to the NYT was not written
>>> by an
>>> 8-year-old, but by a professor of political science at Ohio University -
>>> illustrating once again that political science is to science as military
>>> music
>>> is to music - cheerleading, in both cases. --CGE]
>>>
>>>
>>> [It is] wrong to look backward to the New Deal for its contents. Your
>>> grandfather’s Democratic Party isn’t going to cut it in a world that has
>>> been
>>> radically transformed by the Internet.
>>>
>>> The country needs President Obama’s leadership to help us look forward
>>> and
>>> address our economic problems in new ways that are every bit as creative
>>> as the
>>> New Deal was in its day, but that aren’t the same as the New Deal.
>>>
>>> The world has changed, and our political parties need to catch up quick!
>>> The
>>> gridlock we’ve been seeing is a form of hanging on to the past for both
>>> the
>>> Democrats and the Republicans.
>>>
>>> SUSAN BURGESS
>>> Athens, Ohio, Aug. 8, 2011
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
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