File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2004/lyotard.0403, message 20


Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 19:16:54 -0500
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: Went to a Tarik Ali talk...


Eric wrote:

> Hugh,
>
> I'm open to what you say and think that these ideas merit consideration,
> but also think the challenge they pose to national sovereignty is one
> reason why they usually prove to be unsuccessfully, as well as the fact
> that pure regional homogeneity never exists. It is true, for example,
> that Kurds predominate in the north section of Iraq, but the population
> there is not only Kurds. Kurds also exist in other parts of Iraq.  If a
> Kurdish state was created in the north, would huge migrations of
> populations need to be displaced and what impact would that have on the
> region? How would it impact on the Kurds currently living in Turkey?
> Would the government of Turkey allow a region to secede in order to join
> up with the new state?

These are reasonable arguments but they presuppose some external power with
a God's-eye view, such as the UN with near 200 members or the U.S. as
occupier deciding for populations who want to decide for themselves..

> As a somewhat cynical thought experiment, consider the United States.
> We know that the Southern and Mountain states tend to consistently
> oppose adequate government funding even though these states receive much
> more in federal funding then they contribute. Furthermore, they tend to
> vote in a block that is fundamentalist, racist, homophobic and
> politically reactionary.

But if you lived in one of those States, you wouldn't want the other States
to determine your fate whether you embraced fundamentalist, racist or
homophobic
ideologies, or merely wanted your State of be freed from taxation and
occupation by the Feds.

If  one or more Southern States had tried to secede before their products
became
vital to industry in the Northern States they might have been successful.
,
If  both sides had known the cost of conflict would be several hundred
thousand lives they might have found
an alternative.

Hugh


Hugh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Why not allow these states to secede and form their own nation?  Why
> should the Midwest, West Cost, and Eastern Seaboard continue to
> underwrite them?
>
> eric
>
>



   

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