[p2p-research] cutting cultural budgets

[Michael Gurstein]

Ryan,
 
You go from very smart, informed and insightful analysis to bombastic,
ill-informed, Palinesque ideological posturing sometimes even in the same
post or even in the same paragraph.
 
"The Left" is a bogeyman created by Father Coughlin, McCarthy, Palin and co.
to keep their voters in line and their coffers filled.  Adopting that kind
of "freedom fries" position doesn't get one anywhere except maybe a seat at
the Cato trough.
 
Your earlier message where you discussed the limitations of the Welfare
State seemed to me to open up some very interesting lines of discussion
concerning post Left/Right polarizations in some substantive areas where
there have been few useful developments for a number of years and then you
drift off again into some, what to my mind are, ill-conceived
generalizations and (mis)characterizations.
 
Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org
[mailto:p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Lanham
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2010 12:37 PM
To: p2p research network
Subject: Re: [p2p-research] cutting cultural budgets
 

Here is my concept of the left:

1. There is a dominant evil force called capitalism that must be struggled
against.

2. The way to win that struggle is to unite into a solid base that can block
the standard mechanics of capitalism and allow
for "fair" and "equitable" systems to replace those that are unfair and
inequitable.

3. This struggle exists long as exploitation exists.  

4. Exploitation exists whenever someone gets a sustained advantage over
someone else in a localized plain.   

5. Ending sustained advantage arises when some sufficiently broad and flat
means of governance comes about whereby any imbalances are soon put right.
The broader and flatter this means of governance, the better.


The left has long thought that capitalism's end would come from
concentration...not diffusion.  Capitalism didn't die of dictatorship
combined with exploitation...it died of poor prospects for giving people
more that they want in a sufficiently broad way for it to be an inclusive
system.  The possible outcomes are slaughtering the peripheries--which is
still a possibility--or succumbing slowly to unemployment and deflation
through the decline and fall of credit--what seems to be the mode of death
most likely at the moment and one the labor movement, which always thought
it would be of value, never anticipated at all.

That is what I meant.

Ryan



On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 11:19 AM, j.martin.pedersen
<m.pedersen at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:




On 26/06/10 16:32, Ryan Lanham wrote:
> of private and corporate debt to the public sector.  In short, as we have
> said here left and right, capitalism is screwed...but for reasons far
> different than anything the left ever envisioned...not that it matters.


> Europe's left will spend 30 years discussing the injustice done them,


Your conception of "the left" is incredible narrow.

There is a rule of thumb in philosophy: if you want to present a
convicing argument, then construct your enemy, opponent or even straw
men, as strongly as possible.

m



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-- 
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
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P.O. Box 633
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