On Fri, 3 Oct 1997 wwagar@binghamton.edu wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, 3 Oct 1997, Richard N Hutchinson wrote:
>
> > RKM-
> >
> > You make an excellent point about the necessity to think in terms of
> > evolutionary process rather than apocalyptic scenarios. I agree that the
> > crew currently piloting the planet are way ahead of most of their
> > erstwhile opponents in understanding and acting on this insight.
>
> Yes, because evolution is their game, evolution from partial
> domination and exploitation of the world's peoples and resources to total
> domination and exploitation. Why would they have any interest in
> apocalypses?
>
> > With regard to Warren Wagar's recent proposal, I'm afraid the problem is
> > that he proposes a blueprint, when what is needed is a plan. It is
> > a question of process as opposed to ideal depiction of an outcome. The
> > resistance to the capitalist world-system will arise from below
> > (including intellectuals of course) and take on forms that we cannot
> > currently envision. In the meantime, Samir Amin and others play an
> > invaluable role in specifying the continuing conditions for popular
> > resistance and revolution. But in terms of the transition to a different
> > system, Wagar's proposal sounds too much like a utopian novel.
>
> Maybe that's because it IS a utopian novel--or at least based on a
> utopian novel that I wrote myself, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FUTURE. We need
> blueprints as well as plans, goals as well as strategies, faith as well as
> works.
> In any event, there is a plan embedded in the blueprint, a plan
> for world-revolutionary action spearheaded by a World Party or some other
> genuinely antisystemic movement or movements with global scope and
> membership. The point of my original post was that most so-called
> antisystemic movements play into the hands of the crew currently piloting
> our planet, and that we can and must do better.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Warren
>
>
Warren-
I'm well aware of your novel -- I've read it and found it quite
thought-provoking. My reference to utopian novels was a bit of ironic
humor.
I maintain, though, that just updating the Leninist party on a world scale
is not the answer. I don't have the answer, but I'm convinced that it is
more complicated than your blueprint implies.
I think another of Lenin's contributions might prove more relevant to our
situation. He noticed the "spontaneous" formation of soviets, and called
attention to this as the basis for an intensification of struggle. I
believe that one of the most important roles of intellectuals is to
carefully study the forms of resistance that are developing, and then to
facilitate their spread, and networking among dispersed centers of
resistance in far-flung corners of the world-system. A more modest role,
to be sure, but more likely to succeed than attempting to implement
outmoded approaches in a top-down fashion.
For the emancipation of all living beings-
Richard Hutchinson