a world-system list

I DID think that the series of questions that Professor Borocz asked of
the list were very interesting -- and I was very encouraged to see KJ
Khoo's thoughtful response.  Unlike the vast majority of the postings on
this list in the past few months, both of these messages were good enough
to say in my "worldsys" file.  I will be looking for more discussions on
these and related topics.

There probably are MANY other questions and topics that would address
issues that really address world-system/global political economy issues.
That IS what attracts many people, at least initially, to WSN.  There
really are PLENTY of topics -- including those related to theories of
globalization, mass mobilizations versus international institutions like
the IMF, World Bank, WTO, current trends in world inequality, contemporary
wars and revolutions, ecological threats to the planet, nascent global
social movements promoting the rights of women, indigenous peoples, etc,
and on and on, that really ARE clearly focused on world-system issues.

But -- and here I COMPLETELY AGREE with Jozsef B -- there is a tendency
for a small group of folks on WSN to continuously "drag us" back to a
small set of contentious issues that really DO NOT deserve to dominate the
discussions here.  Honestly, I do not know why these particular flash
points fascinate these folks -- and I don't see any point in speculating.   
But these "debates" tend to 1) reoccur over and over again, and 2)
usually cast more heat than light on the issue at hand.  (An example:
none of us "learn" anything when someone calls a person who she or he
doesn't know a "racist reactionary" because that individual suggests that
the ENDLESS "sociobiology debate" isn't central to a world-system list!
In fact, I really don't see how you win "debating points" with this sort
of approach, either...)

Of course, we do not (and will not) try to "censor" folks on the list.
And those of us who have a genuine interest in the world-system can just
hit the delete key (unfortunately, it's often hard to tell from the
message headers that these old off topic discussions are starting again).
But, let's face it, lots of us are busy -- and it just get's "old" --
that's why so many other serious scholars no longer participate on this
list.

Rather than calling people nasty, inappropriate (and, in this case, I
would point out, clearly inaccurate) names, people MIGHT want to listen
to what others have to say.  And before hitting the "reply" key, you may
actually want to take a moment to THINK, as well...

cheers,

dave smith
sociology, uc-irvine


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 16:52:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jozsef Borocz <jborocz@rci.rutgers.edu>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Cc: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>, aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu
Subject: Re: Politely written--hoping this doesn't start another round on
    biology (fwd)

On Sun, 21 May 2000 md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu wrote:

|Andy, can you expand a little bit? I thought both calvinism and
|socio-biology had racist connotations... calvinism's work ethic of
|"rational organization of labor" and dicipline of self is very smilar to
|faschist appeal to survival of the strongest..
|
|comradely, Mine

We need a world-system list. Can somebody recommend one?

Jozsef