From: Gary Dale <Gary.Dale-AT-ee.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 14:28:35 GMT
Subject: Re: M-TH: listen, vanguardists!



On the issue of renewing civil society.  When
I lived in Manchester the local authority built
a 'community centre'.  Local cynics jested that all
that was needed was 'a community' to go with it.

In Blair's Britain the idea of community renewal
seems to mean the after-school trampolining club.
There's something very fake about this, it's more to
do with therapeutic politics.  Or 'renewa'l means law
and order campaigns - not a positive identification
between active agents making a better society,
but a negative one against criminals.  Indeed,
the last 'community action' I recall was people
on the streets trying to evict a released paedophile.
In the US there is "Megan's Law".  I'd see trends
like these, and those evident in many feminist/green
campaigns, as signs of stagnation rather than something
vibrant.


Gary D.



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