Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 22:54:44 -0500
From: dan combs <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us>
Subject: Re: Evolution or Revolution?


At 06:39 PM 8/16/2004, [greg] ® wrote:

>well i'm not really an expert on evolution vs
>revolution (as will undoubtably be noticed by those on
>the list more scholarly on the subject than i ) but if
>you simply break down the definitions of both words
>i'd say evolution will do more to fight the machine
>than revolution.

Man, we have changed over the years.   At one time there would have been 
flames headed your way before you even hit the "send" button.

You say a lot I agree with and that takes up back up old Hakim Bey's alley 
with Temporary Autonomous Zones.   At one time thinking anything 
"temporary" was an anathema to me.  But the absolute might of the US/UK 
axis in subverting organized resistance is getting to be truly 
astounding.  10 years ago no one would have dreamed that "protest" would be 
channeled into some legalistic venue.  The Uprising In Seattle seems more 
and more a blip on the radar.  I remember many people thought it was the 
beginning of something.  I tend to think that it may have been the 
beginning of the end.

After Seattle almost all of the world's financiers and political leaders 
were shunted off into Fortresses Of Belief where no objecting wirdz or 
images intrude.  Capital has actually created these massive echo chambers 
where the only thing that is heard is self-reinforcing verbiage and 
fallacious thanks from the criminals that are allowed to loot one social 
empire after another.

I won't go into technology too much but to say 9-11 has unleashed a power 
over the citizenry that was science fiction a decade past.  Now if you walk 
on the street of a major city you are under constant electronic 
surveillance and computers are checking the facial structure of one person 
after another, on the lookout for who-knows-what.   I don't know that in 
the US there can be hope for a true revolutionary's survival 
anymore.   Maybe there were no more conspirators after 9-11.  I almost hope 
this is the truth because if it's not, it means the state has interjected 
itself into some very dark and secret places and there are few if any 
hiding places yet.

The unleashing of Global Capital has just put not humyn into 
competition  with humyn, but societies in economic contention against 
societies.  Except the societies are competing, not in a the jungle of raw 
survival, but on the savannas cleared by capital where they are allowed to 
compete.   And even though there must be a loser in these competitions, it 
is not the societies who will win.

Even strikes now have turned into some cynical exercise where the objective 
is not to better conditions for wirkers but merely, if possible, to 
maintain the status quo.   It is rare to hear anyone say "Wirkers must 
control the means of production."   We are now in the corporate state where 
the means of production have been made portable and replaceable:  They will 
be torn down here in our jungle, and rebuilt upon the false savanna.

Sheesh.

Chuck0 unsubscribed after a debate/flame fest over post-modern 
anarchy.   Which I think is the state of being I am coming to grips with.


carp