Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 10:55:08 -0800
From: hugh bone <hughbone-AT-worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Politics


Arturo Cherbowski wrote:
> 
> What's to be done ?  By whom ?  For whom ?  To what end ?. . .
> "mis"quoting Lenin in this way again points to what is pissing me off. .
> . I say "mis"quote because while the sentence is the same the address
> here, the call that appears through you, is definetely not. . . it is
> part of an incommesurable regime of phrases. . . but enough, I need to
> say this differently because I am starting to use this kind of
> vocabulary that sickens me. . .Lenin"s question is irreducibly,
> incomparably, determinantely, gravely, heavyly concrete. . .it is a
> question about what particular course of action need be taken to achieve
> particular results in a particular historical conjuncture, a particular
> situation. . . It is irreducibly a question of POLITICS, a question of
> concrete possible outcomes, costs and benefits, forces and
> counterforces, of expidiencies and necessities. . . What you ask here
> does not even amount to a parody of it. . . it is sheer empty
> abstraction. . . pure formalism intended at most to have a certain but
> very vague rhetorical effect, to stimulate some affect, any affect on
> the addressee. . it is hence a question of some ridiculous theoretical
> concept such as the POLITICAL (very different from politics) or
> something like that. . . What do you want to do in terms of what and at
> what cost. . . anybody that operates within the sphere of any kind of
> power or force understands almost intuitively that this question only
> makes sense or amounts to more than mental masturbation when asked in
> the way that Lenin does. . . the way you ask it here is really
> meaningless. . . I'll tellyou what I will do right now. . . I am going
> to the corner deli to buy a Coke. . .is that what you meant ?
-AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT-

I meant:  What do you, Arturo, "think" is to be done?  Getting a coke
may stimulate a thought process more than punching keys. 

Hugh