Re: Troubles of the World (fwd)

Dear Mine,

        Please read my post again.  I do not think any of the things you
credit me with.  I was only trying to suggest that we need to rise above
our righteous ad hoc indignation, and virtually all of it is righteous,
and realize that what is required is a world-historical systemic
transformation.  So it's not a question of this horror or that horror,
but of the intrinsic horror of the world-system itself, which in turn is
only the latest manifestation of the age-old--and now obsolete--proclivity
of the (temporarily) rich and powerful to sustain their hegemony.

        Warren     

On Sat, 3 Jun 2000 md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu wrote:

> 
> Warren, I think you are wrong, or you articulated your ideas quite
> differently. If you think the genocide in Iraq, NATO crap in Kosovo or
> population issues have nothing to do with the modern world system and the
> fact that most of the wealth is concentrated in the west, you are not sure
> about which world system you are referring to. Kurds are being
> exterminated by Saddam every second. Turks are taking the support of US
> to persecute Kurd people in their own territory, while letting US war
> planes bomb no-fly zones and civil settlements in Iraq. Rusian soldiers
> are killing Checen women and children, and the US is doing its best to
> legitimize Russian aggression. Taliban is using western tanks to press
> women to wall. Which world are you living in? I wonder how a modern world
> system analysis would look like without even discussing these facts you
> call "bullshit"... 
> 
> May be I am too dense, but I find your language inappropriate here.
> You just stress out by dictating us what to discuss. Crazy about not
> being dictated personality wise, I find your response non-communicative
> and a restless invitation to "off topic" siliness..
> 
> Mine
> 
> 
>  Dear List,
> 
>       Sorry, but we need to re-focus.  We all know that the great issue
> facing humankind in the 21st Century is not the rights of frozen embryos
> or the genocide in Iraq or the crap dispensed by Madeline Albright or NATO
> bullshit about Kosovo or whatever.  The problem is that most of the wealth
> and power in the modern world-system is wielded by the 20% of the world's
> people who live in the "advanced" countries, and that most of their wealth
> and power is in turn concentrated in the top 5% of the people in the top
> 20%. 
> 
>       The only sane response to this conundrum, I maintain, is global
> revolutionary politics.  I'm not particularly fastidious about whether the
> model is Leninist, Trotskyist, or (Michael) Harrisonian.  When in reason's
> name are we going to mount a concerted, effective, worldwide response?
> 
>       So forget, if you can, about the details.  The details are
> obvious.  What's lacking is the grand strategy.
> 
>       In comradeship,
> 
>       Warren 
> 
> 
>