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Analysis & Polemic

September 13, 2003 - 11:52am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Culture

"Learning To Be Stupid in the Culture of Cash"

Luciana Bohne, 12 August 2003

You might think that reading about a Podunk University's English
teacher's attempt to connect the dots between the poverty of American
education and the gullibility of the American public may be a little
trivial, considering we've embarked on the first, openly-confessed
imperial adventure of senescent capitalism in the US. Bear with me. The
question my experiences in the classroom raise is why have these young
people been educated to such abysmal depths of ignorance.

September 12, 2003 - 9:34am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

Full moon over Richmond writes:


"Connecting the Imperial Dots:

San Francisco WTO Solidarity Action"
Patrick Reinsborough

As thousands descended upon Cancun to prepare for the week of actions against the WTO, a diverse group of nearly 400 of us gathered in a park in Point Richmond, California. People from all walks of life were united by a common opposition to corporate globalization, war and the destruction that our addiction to oil wreaks on communities and ecosystems around the world.

September 11, 2003 - 12:13pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

"Cancun: Kyoung Hae Lee Is Dead"

Starhawk

Kyoung Hae Lee is dead. I don't yet know his
story, only that he came with the Korean workers'
contingent. I videoed them forming up in the march,
carrying their proud banners, beating their drums and
bells. They marched up at the front, with the
campesinos and the other workers. When the march
reached the police barricade, they split off, marched
up to the fence, and Kyoung Hae Lee took his own life,
stabbing himself in the heart in an act of ritual
suicide.

September 11, 2003 - 8:15am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Some Theses on the Use of Words"

Council for the Use of Words

in 1: the introduction of an old idea;
in 2: critique of separation by words;
in 3: three questions;
in 4: the pleasures of bodies and minds gathered, making art as space;
in 5: the purpose of the use of words, the quest by posing of questions;
in 6: the use of words in organizations, and the ways to judge them;
in 7: what the poets do, practically, if not nothing;
in 8: the relation between users of words, organized life, and research;
in 9: a formulation and a dissolution.

1. We are definitely not the first, and perhaps not the last in a historical series of poetic groups that have suggested the route elaborated in this vulnerable text. But that is not the point. The route proposed has all the characteristics of a modern, that is to say a romantic movement. It is romantic because we place in the forefront our urgent desire at the present moment, and its practical form. And it is modern because we have no desire at all to return to, or reproduce in new forms the poverty and endless repetitions of this world. Instead we have chosen to surpass it completely, starting from the present state of things in order to realize a world of poetry, and through it to realize our desires for a new life made by none other than ourselves. It is not a new idea…

September 10, 2003 - 4:00pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"Notes on the Civil Society:

The NGO Nexus on the Eve of the WSIS"

Soenke Zehle, Nettime

To approach the dynamic of so-called civil society organization in the
context of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), it might make
sense to attempt to identify some of the trends occuring across what is
often referred to as the 'NGO community' or 'international civil society'
more generally.

September 6, 2003 - 2:07pm -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

Anonymous Comrade submits "A chapter from curious george brigade's new book, Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs. To get a copy check your local infoshop or visit the web-site www.ageofdinosaurs.net or www.yellowjack.mahost.org

------


THE INEFFICIENT UTOPIA OR HOW CONSENSUS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD

Over and over again, anarchists have been critiqued, arrested, and
killed by "fellow-travelers" on the road to revolution because we were
deemed inefficient. Trotsky complained to his pal Lenin that the
anarchists in charge of the railways were 'inefficient devils'. Their
lack of punctuality will derail our revolution." Lenin agreed, and in
1919, the anarchist Northern Rail Headquarters was stormed by the Red
Guard and the anarchists were "expelled from their duties." Charges of
inefficiency were not only a matter of losing jobs for anarchists, but
an excuse for the authorities to murder them. Even today, anarchist
principles are condemned roundly by those on the Left as simply not
efficient enough. We are derided because we would rather be opening a
squat or cooking big meals for the hungry than selling newspapers. These
criticisms from the larger activist scene have had scurrilous effects.
More disturbing than these outside attacks, anarchists have begun to
internalize and repeat this criticism. Some have attempted to gain
efficiency with such means as officers, federations, and voting. All of
this is done to scare away the hobgoblin of inefficiency that has dogged
anarchism for so long.

September 6, 2003 - 12:51pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Mainstream Media

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"This War on Terrorism Is Bogus"

Michael Meacher, The Guardian, September 6, 2003

Michael Meacher, MP, was UK Environment Minister from May 1997 to June 2003.


Massive attention has now been given -- and rightly so -- to the reasons why
Britain went to war against Iraq. But far too little attention has focused
on why the US went to war, and that throws light on British motives too.
The conventional explanation is that after the Twin Towers were hit,
retaliation against al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan was a natural first step
in launching a global war against terrorism. Then, because Saddam Hussein
was alleged by the US and UK governments to retain weapons of mass
destruction, the war could be extended to Iraq as well. However this
theory does not fit all the facts. The truth may be a great deal murkier.
September 6, 2003 - 11:40am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

Anonymous Comrade submits:


"The Perfumed Prince and Other Political Tales"

John Chuckman, September 5, 2003

The Perfumed Prince declared himself a Democrat. Many Americans may not recognize the nickname bestowed upon Wesley Clarke by British colleagues as he strutted around Serbia with his set of platinum-plated general's stars carefully repositioned each day to a freshly-starched and ironed camouflage cap, wafting a thick vapor trail of cologne. His lack of judgment demonstrated in Serbia -- including an order to clear out Russian forces that British general, Sir Michael Jackson, had to ignore for fear of starting World War III -- should be enough to utterly disqualify him as a candidate for President. But this is America, land of opportunity.

September 5, 2003 - 2:10pm -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

"The Great Divide: The Enlightenment and its Critics"

Stephen Eric Bronner

[From New Politics, vol. 5, no. 3 (new series), whole no. 19, Summer 1995.] Stephen Eric Bronner is a professor of political science at Rutgers University and a member of the New Politics editorial board.

Max Weber already envisioned the spirit of Enlightenment "irretrievably fading" and a world in which there would remain only "specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart."1 But he was bitter about this development, which places him in marked contrast to much of contemporary opinion. The Enlightenment, of course, always had its critics. Beginning with the Restoration of 1815 and the new philosophical reaction to the French Revolution, however, they were almost exclusively political -- if not necessarily cultural -- adherents of the right: intelligent conservatives committed to organic notions of development like Edmund Burke, elitists seeking a return to the sword and the robe like Joseph de Maistre, racists intent on viewing world history as a battle between aryans and Jews like Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and apocalyptics prophesying doom like Oswald Spengler.

September 5, 2003 - 2:00pm -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Mainstream Media

Mad? Bad? Dangerous to know? A Clown or a strange type of danger? This interview is very Much Silvio B. unplugged and you can be the judge..

The new imperial vision of Silvio Berlusconi

The Spectator began by asking Berlusconi whether he has mended fences with Chancellor Schröder, after he likened the German Social Democrat MEP, Martin Schulz, to a Nazi camp commandant?


It was I who was offended, my government and my country. I replied with a joke. I wanted to be humorous. The whole of the parliament laughed. My reply was taken and exploited against me. But you know what? It was a reply that was virtually impossible for me to resist because I once broadcast 120 episodes of Hogan’s Heroes in which there was this Sergeant Schulz. You remember? I didn’t even think about it. Schulz was shouting at me — no? And it just came to me off the cuff. I always try to be ironical in my speeches. Anyway, I had a phone conversation with Schröder in which I said my intention had not been to offend and that I was sorry that my joke had upset some people.


What provoked him?


In that sitting of the parliament, the speeches had been prepared beforehand under the direction of the MEPs of the Italian Left. So out came this image of Italy as follows: first, that in Italy there is a man who controls 85 per cent of the Italian press — the opposite is the case: I am the most liberal publisher in history; two, that this person also controls all Italian television — when I have one friend in Italian television who has a 7 per cent share; three, that I trample the Italian judges beneath my feet — and so if Italy were to apply today to join the EU, the application would be turned down. This was the theme of all the different speeches by the Left that day.

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