From Periphery to Richard Hutchinson

Dear Richard, Mime and rest of friends,
In some past letter Richard N Hutchinson wrote:
Why would movements in the periphery (Amin's definition) listen to us?

Richard, this is an answer from a peripheric person. I think we should pay 
attention to occidental people -core intelectuals or not- for several 
reasons:
1. We walk over the same planet, belong to the same species, receive the 
same sun light, breath the same air, are wet by the same rains, share life 
with other alive beings, and share common future situations.
2. We do not want to make the same mistake of creating a system based on 
exclusion and marginalization. US independence searched support in France, 
Bolivar in England, Castro in the Soviet Union,... It was needed because 
they seeked freedom from a powerful oppresor. Look what hapened to 
Salvador, 
Guatemala and Nicaragua after loosing so many human lives: they found no 
support to overcome the reply of the empire and allied elites with their 
contras. So they had to accept an insatisfactory outlet.
3. There is always the OTHER (person, point of view, solution, alternative, 
wisdom, mistake, sense of humor,..). If we think we are the owners of the 
only possible truth and path, you will have the right to feel pity about us.
4. In periphery past we have been aided many times, even by occidental 
pro-system people, to rediscover and conserve our best values and cultural 
treasures, as to reconstruct our sometimes mistreated egos and bodies.
5. Dialogue is the best approach. It has to be based on confidence, and 
eventhough, there is also the chance of the mistake. Here, in the 
periphery, 
we know that words may be used to open yourself, or to hide yourself -we 
have experience in both ones-. I will never know which are your real 
intentions from your words, I just assume you carry good ones... but there 
is always the OTHER possibilities.
6. Our survival depends on knowing you better than you know us. Like cats 
and mice, when mices make a mistake they pay a big price, when cats make a 
mistake it is only a lost punch in the air.

It may be good to change the word anti-systemic for something different 
like 
pro-new-system. Our task is not only to dennounce the present system 
perversion, but to proppose, perfection and work some other one, with the 
hope it will be better. The name of the tool may be changed: WP, or Pangea, 
... that is only one of the possible chat points. IMSPO (in my sometimes 
perverted opinion) we are centering the effort in finding an escape-goat 
instead of an escape-road. Now, if we stick to our particular beloved 
premises, any explanation will be built from them (marxists will explain 
Russian case because they were not marxist enough, neoliberals because they 
did not free market enough, christians because they were not christians 
enough, ...).

Few days ago I sent Richard a personal email. Given that he did not answer 
me, I may ask his same question: ...Why would Richard in his personal world 
(whatever his definition may be) listen to us, the peripheric people?... 
But 
I also made the same omission, I did not answer a word to a kind 
list-chater 
that sent me a nice email few days ago, and he was a core-intelectual, so I 
apologize because I deleted his file and can not correct that error. 
Anyway, 
I feel free to reproduce the contents of the letter sent to Richard:
********
Dear Richard Hutchinson,
There is truth in the information you give to us. This is not a 
condemnation 
of Chinese, Soviet, Cuban, and other human efforts done by those nations 
and 
their best people. In many ways they have bravely marked our recent history.
(You said:)
<There is evidently a big debate over this and the <alleged crimes of other 
state socialist countries <right now in France, which reminded me to bring 
up <something I've been wondering about for some time.

An eventual world party, or similar organization will always need a person 
like you, which from inside or outside it, remind us about how easy the 
truth may be distorted by mainstream media in any place.

Somebody said once that a pessimist is just a well informed optimist. There 
is no doubt about your well intentioned contribution, even if we have a 
different approach. And about methods, a great US-psychologist, Maslow, 
once 
said something like: 'When the only tool we know is a hammer, any new 
problem that we face will take the shape of a nail'.
So people like you are needed to avoid such a tendence.

R.D.Laing, in his Knots, opens his astonishing little book with this:
..They are playing a game.
..They are playing at not playing a game.
..If I show them I see they are,
..I will break the rules and they will punish me.
..I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.

So please, stay around and thanks for your presence. Cordial regards,
Emilio
************

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