[This article continues from Barbarians, Part One]

GO TO WORK!

    The two emissaries describe the subjects as “multitude”, a neutral term of the quantitative sort taken from some scholars of the past that is useful for avoiding the encumbrance of using a qualitative description of sides. Their aim is to convince the subjects that although it may be true that the Empire shows many defects, it is also true that its existence is the result of a right and inevitable necessity. That if the Empire is the One that represents the Many, it is only because it expresses them in a precise arithmetical sum, not because it annihilates them inside itself. That its functioning is not something that the multitudes now suffer, but that they themselves have determined, intentionally or not. In a word, that the will of the Empire is not, in fact, opposed to the desires of the multitude, but that, on the contrary, it is their expression and realization, even if lacking -– which is why there is no reason whatsoever for wanting its destruction. Quite so!

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"The World:

Seven Thoughts In May of 2003"

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Originally published in Spanish by www.revistarebeldia.org, translated by irlandesa

Introduction

While the Power's calendars break down, and while the large media
corporations vacillate between those absurdities and tragedies being
staged and promoted by the world?s political class, below, in the great
and extensive basement of the tottering modern Tower of Babel, the
movements are not ceasing and, even though they are still faltering, they
are beginning to regain the word and their ability to act as mirror and
lens. While the politics of discord are being decreed above, in the
basement of the world, the others are finding each other and the other
who, being different, is another below.

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Lessons from the American Revolution"

John Chuckman, July 2, 2003

Many otherwise well-educated Americans know remarkably little about the actual circumstances of their country's birth. Assumptions about that early period, frequently offered as counterexamples to the current dangerous and dreary American government, too often contain little more than boyish daydreams of nobler times.



America's central myth about its founding goes something like this: An extraordinary bunch of men, dressed in frock coats and wearing powdered wigs, closeted together after a long and heroic war against tyranny, worked unselfishly to give the United States a perfect modern system of government.



Since they were men concerned with rights and abuses and the tyranny of absolute monarchy, they gave Americans a set of basic rights that is the envy of the world.

Anonymous Kumquat submits:

This edited introduction is from Han's latest book: The Economics of Competition: A Critique of Paul Samuelson's "Economics," published by Jingji Kexue, Chubanshe, 2002

"The Economics of Competition: A Critique of Paul Samuelson"

Han Deqiang, China Study Group

A Collective "Prisoners' Dilemma"

China has switched to a market economy for a whole decade now. People once
hoped, and may still be dreaming that, as the institution matures and
perfects itself, China would become a strong developed country, where
democracy rules and people enjoy high quality of life not only in material
terms but also in spiritual and moral terms.

But reality seems to be moving
farther away from such a dream. Since the late 1990's, all kinds of Chinese
enterprises have gone bankrupt en masse. With it came increased
unemployment, lower mandatory retirement age, lower wages for workers,
decreased income for farmers and slack domestic demand. With the influx of
foreign enterprises and foreign products, many Chinese enterprises have
switched their business lines because they no longer have the confidence to
run a high-tech business at a profit. They become de facto employees of
those foreign enterprises, earning meager fees for their efforts.

In the
meantime, there has been a staggering number of tragic mine accidents that
kill thousands year after year. Major accidents involving large number of
deaths, such as firework factory explosions, plane crashes, as well as fires
at cyber cafes, night clubs, theaters and shopping malls have occurred with
mind-numbing frequency; villages and small towns are flooded with fake or
poor quality products; drugs and AIDS are rampant. Not only has corruption
become a normal way of doing things among many officials, but it has also
become a normal part of the values/belief system of the collective national
psyche, marked by an egregious lack of civil-mindedness and ethical
awareness. Teachers, doctors, lawyers and accountants all share the belief
that " One must make use of one's position of power for self-enrichment
before one loses it"; schools have become agencies that sell diplomas;
hospitals force patients to pay up or leave.