Re: Cheap tix to DC/Baltimore (fwd)

1) I have long labored to support discussions on WSN that dealt with
important issues (including some really terrific discussions lately) and
have tried to stay out of most of the flaming wars (usually...), so there is
some kind of sad irony in my post being responsible for the flurry of
unnecessary posts (including probably this one)  about commenting on cheap
tickets.

2) The reality is that probably 65% --75% of the people on this list live in
the U.S. and many might attend the American Sociological Association
meetings in DC this year. The last time it was on the East Coast, I met some
interesting people from Ireland, Germany, South Africa, India, and even
England. I'm glad they came all the way to a conference in the U.S., just as
I have attended a half dozen conferences or meetings in Italy, Germany,
England, and Israel in the past 5 years or so. If  there were an ISA
conference in Europe and someone posted information on inexpensive flights
between London, Amsterdam, Paris, or Frankfurt and the city where the
conference was being held, I'm sure it would be helpful to some.  I
wouldn't call it Eurocentric, just as I don't believe that it is
unnecessarily "Occidental-centric" that this list is being conducted in the
language of my friends, the English.

3)But nitpicking aside, it is always helpful when  someone cautions us to be
aware of serious instances of national chauvinism/ethnocentrism of any kind.
And the U.S. does certainly manifest that the most, despite its rhetoric of
"globalization" which usually means "U.S. CAPITALISM-IZATION"  And it is
also true that even some Leftists manifest national chauvinism.

anti-imperialistically yours,

Alan Spector

P.S. -- Does anyone know of any upcoming conferences in Puerto Rico? (Yes, I
know that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S.)





-----Original Message-----
From: Mick Drake <M.Drake@uea.ac.uk>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Cc: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 6:12 AM
Subject: Re: Cheap tix to DC/Baltimore (fwd)


>Look, my point can be taken at the simplest, most
>elementary level as this:
>If I were to post notices of cheap flights everywhere,
>everywhen, the list would become clogged and members would
>become pretty pissed-off. Why is info about cheap flights
>inside the US so privileged?
>At another level, it may be worth thinking about whether
>thinking about world-systems always has to orient upon the
>hegemon. Even the recent contributions on Chinese
>dissidents are oriented on their attitude to US
>institutions.
>Ask yourselves, what are the implications of this praxis,
>ie. of orientating critical thought on global relations to
>the US hegemon?
>Mick
>
>On Wed, 17 May 2000 05:43:39 -0400 (EDT) Andrew Wayne
>Austin <aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu> wrote:
>> Mick,
>>
>> You say this in a post responding to Mine who regularly informs the list
>> of conferences outside the United States. (If I am not mistaken, she was
>> criticized by somebody who wondered why it was useful to people on this
>> list to be told about conferences they cannot attend - can't win for
>> losing.) One of the things we academics do is travel to conferences and
>> discuss matters of great intellectual importance (after all, most of us
>> have diplomas in thinkology). The moderator of the list posts info on
>> conferences almost every day. "US intellectuals" are certainly in for
some
>> criticism, but I don't think sharing cheap flight information should be
>> one of the key points of attack.
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>> On Wed, 17 May 2000, Mick Drake wrote:
>>
>> >Perhaps we should rename the list? Does no-one ever stop to
>> >condider the extent to which the overwhelmingly US-vantage
>> >point of this list is itself a mode of hegemony within
>> >the critical theory of world-systems?
>> >This has evidently become so much an accepted and unspoken
>> >background to this stream of thought that the list is
>> >now even used to exchange the commercio-cultural
>> >'cosmopolitan' chatter of the priveleged intellectual US
>> >hegemonic elite.
>> >Mick Drake
>> >
>> >On Wed, 17 May 2000 02:45:21 -0400 (EDT)
>> >md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Alan, thanks for sharing this info with us!
>> >>
>> >> I was in the midst of looking for a ticket to Chicago, so it was very
>> >> helpful..
>> >>
>> >> comradely,
>> >>
>> >> Mine
>> >>
>> >> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 16 May 2000
23:57:06
>> >> -0500 From: Spectors <spectors@netnitco.net> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK
>> >> <wsn@csf.colorado.edu> Cc: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK
<wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>> >> Subject: Cheap tix to DC/Baltimore I just came across some VERY cheap
>> >> fares between Chicago and Baltimore.  Actually, I'll paste in the ad:
>> >> Baltimore/Washington $52 each way to/from Birmingham $50 each way
to/from
>> >> Chicago Midway $34 each way to/from Cleveland $94 each way to/from
Houston
>> >> Hobby $61 each way to/from Orlando $94 each way to/from San Antonio
>> >>
>> >> It's on Southwest Airlines and is good from June 6 through October,
which
>> >> includes the times of the SSSP and ASA in Washington. For those who
don't
>> >> know, the Baltimore airport is only about 45 minutes to downtown
Washington.
>> >> It's not much further than DC-Dulles airport in Virginia. Anyhow, I
know
>> >> that most people who are reading this aren't into sociology for the
money
>> >> and some might find that these low fares might make it possible for
them to
>> >> get to the conventions this year.
>> >>
>> >> You have to purchase this on the internet; check out the following
site:
>> >>
>> >> Southwest Airlines Click 'n Save Internet Specials at
>> >> http://www.southwest.com/hotfares/?src=click
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Good luck,
>> >>
>> >> Alan Spector
>> >>
>> >> (NOOOOO, this doesn't mean that Alan Spector is now going
>> >> rivatized  ---doing commercials that is; it's just an attempt to apply
>> >> comrade wally (vlady)'s dictum that the capitalist class will sell us
the
>> >> rope that we will use to hang them (figuratively speaking, of
course) )
>> >>
>> >
>>
>