Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 17:32:22 +1000 From: rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au (Rob Schaap) Subject: M-I: Re: Godena's Remarks I have to go along with Richard - but I'd like to add that (a) asking people to throw off the comfortable robes of a sect, into which decades of personal investment have been made, is as tortuously difficult as it is necessary, and (b) this list argues at fever pitch, but rarely leaves the tracks. For instance, in my few months here,I've been witness to vitriolic exchanges (Rose v. Godena; Lou p. v. Bobs Scheetz and Malecki etc etc), yet have not seen the list deteriorate. The odd indignant shriek and inappropriate label does not put these people off, and eventually newcomers like me get value from their posts again and again (unfortunately, I'm still not sure they get value from each other). Me, I'm glad I have access to 'em all. 'Tis to be said though - Of the many things I have learned from this list, the continued inability of lefties to find practical common ground is one. Zeynep is not just right here, she is bringing to the fore THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE for the left today (as it has been ever since the 1920s). Either we stumble impotently into the future with eyes locked firmly on a romanticised past, or we ask ourselves why, in a time when the objective conditions seem so amenable to our mode of analysis and praxis, our voice is so quiet, incoherent and unsure. As I've said before (and I'm not the first), in such times, people head for succour and hope. The fascist right offers it just as we offer it. They're offering it louder just now ... Sometimes 'specious rhetoric' (I can see the accusation coming) *is* appropriate, without recourse to theory (as Dave would have it) or empirical substantiation (as Doug would have it) - that's how I justify the above, anyway. Regards, Rob. --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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