Date: 16 Mar 96 02:32:00 EST
From: "Chris, London" <100423.2040-AT-compuserve.com>
To: Michael Luftmensch <MLuftmensch-AT-hubcap.mlnet.com>
Cc: marxismlist a <marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu>
Subject: re-marxism pond


So Michael,

Thanks for copying your message to the l'st to me, as I am copying 
this reply, to you. You realise then that at least one other person 
appreciates your contributions. I suspect the reality is a lot more.

Since you were frank in your introduction about yourself,
I was interested that you said you had taken no 
formal higher education. You come over to me as an example
of a very thoughtful person trying to contribute in a marxist
spirit, without any intellectual pretentiousness. Your use of 
source material, IMHO, is fully in the marxist epistemological 
tradition: there is no such thing as an absolutely truthful
representation of reality: there are ideas and statements that 
partially reflect and illuminate reality but always must be seen
in the context of the writer, including their socio-economic 
context. [Your quoted source on the Cultural Revolution, I 
thought was also particularly illuminatingly selected.]

Therefore the statements from Amnesty International and the acticle
published by NACLA, were valuable bits of evidence, including for 
their inevitable bias. The report from their class position, of the 
oil companies on Peru, actually complemented some of the other evidence
>from other class sources. 

Among the most informative and frank papers in Britain is the Financial 
Times. Often it is marxism without the armband.

I will take this opportunity to share with you and the l'st what I 
undertook to report back on - the reply from Amnesty International
to my letter of concern about the superficiality of their reporting 
of an alleged massacre of Ashaninka's in 1993, which appeared not to 
have taken elementary precautions to screen the report against 
possibilities that the massacre was done by government forces.

Well, I have had no effective reply over 4 weeks. I have been passed 
>from one person to another. I really do not know what to make of this.
Internet is not well designed to ensure accountability, and trying
to look at it from their point of view, my letter perhaps would have
taken two or three hours work to respond to authoritatively. 
But also I have just had a report that ai.general has been closed for
some reason, so there may be some internal reorganisation. On the 
other hand I do not think it puts Amnesty International in the best of 
lights. I will update the l'st if I get anything more.


What however I really like about your post is the ecological metaphor.
Over a year ago I used the image of a culture dish for this l'st, in which
it is possible to watch different ideas competing, interacting, disrupting
and interacting with each other. Except the late lamented Paul Cockshott, 
who drew attention to Kaufmann's work on computer modelling of life
forms, and how it could apply to knowledge, I know no one else who 
has made this connection.

And yet in biological terms, the richness of a rain forest even in a 
temperate part of the world like Vancouver, is one that can show a number
of different shades of green. One ecological measure I understand is used
is the variety and diversity of the species that interact in an environment.
I think this l'st is hovering on the edge of whether people are going to 
try to insist that it is a monoculture or whether we can tolerate and 
welcome a far more differentiated political ecology. Perhaps
even sharks have a creative part to play!  Dare I speculate then
this this culture dish is ready for a cultural revolution, though not
perhaps of the sort that those who wear their Maoism on their sleeve,
would wish?

Anyway, IMO the niche you have chosen to occupy is a particularly 
constructive one. Long may you hang on in there, even if at times you 
feel like one of those strange air-plants, that survive on no 
nourishment at all.

Regards,

Chris
London.




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