Maybe emails/positionings like the one by Reed are the problem of the ‚left‘? I find it very arrogant to bash Rajus arguments in such moralist manner. Maybe it’s better to face reality? If some had dreams »about their countrymen« than it might be better to wake up.

thomas


> Am 10.11.2016 um 06:07 schrieb Mark Purcell <[log in to unmask]>:
> 
> Thank you, Reed.  This helped lessen my despair today, at least a little.
> 
> 
> On 11/09/2016 08:53 AM, Reed Underwood wrote:
>> Raju,
>> 
>> Please can this shit.
>> 
>> I just walked across a rather morose campus and came upon a crying young woman, an undocumented student, her eyes red. She'd wrapped herself in our flag, the American flag, and held a sign saying, "Even if our president doesn't love you, we do." She had a friend with her, and I hugged them both.
>> 
>> You can rail about critical theory all you want and talk this lesser-evilism cant until the end of days. But this election will have real consequences for real people. Banging on this drum you're banging strikes me less as a principled stand than a convenient way to avoid difficult moral choices in very critical, specific situations. Millions will likely lose what little health insurance they have. People will be harried and harassed and deported. And who knows what else is coming down the pipe for the most vulnerable Americans? And who knows what the knock-on effects will be for even more vulnerable people the world over?
>> 
>> I'm with Nica. Just give us a couple of days, at least, without ascending to the podium to bloviate as if this is just another low-stakes academic conference. For a lot of us, we had high hopes that our country was something that it hasn't turned out to be. A lot of us are terrified for friends and loved ones and broken-hearted with what we feel we've learned about our countrymen.
>> 
>> What I'm trying to say is that people in these circumstances don't need this kind of lecture. They need care and concern and solidarity. To all those on the list who see this for what I really think it is, a really devastating blow for common decency and human flourishing, you have my love and support and attention. I send it from down here in deep red Texas, where many, many of us are hurting, too, and where we're ready to fight like hell for our people and our highest hopes.
>> 
>> I care about you, too, Raju, but, please, can this shit.
>> 
>> Best,
>> Reed Underwood
>> http://fm2279.xyz
>> 
>> On 2016-11-09 09:42, Raju J Das wrote:
>>> We now know which member of the US ruling class is going to rule over
>>> America (and the world) over the next 4 years.
>>> 
>>> It is a right-wing, racist, ultra-rich, economic-nationalist,
>>> politician, for whom running a government is like running a business.
>>> 
>>> And it is NOT a warmonger tied to the Wall Street, deploying identity
>>> politics and offering little for the working masses.
>>> 
>>> Her own political party has engaged in TWO SIMULTANEOUS ATTACKS, which
>>> she would continue if she was elected: an attack on the living
>>> standards of the masses in the US, and an attack on weaker countries,
>>> on which billions are spent, the money that could be used for the
>>> welfare of American masses. She and her party would not even allow a
>>> mildly progressive political alternative to emerge, one that was
>>> represented by Sanders, resulting in many of his supporters voting for
>>> Mr. Trump.
>>> 
>>> We have heard the lesser evil and the greater evil, etc stuff quite
>>> often. Read these lines from Hal Draper, from the 1960s:
>>> 
>>> _the Lesser Evils ... find themselves acting at every important
>>> juncture exactly like the Greater Evils, and sometimes worse. They are
>>> the product of the increasing convergence of liberalism and
>>> conservatism under conditions of bureaucratic capitalism. There never
>>> was an era when the policy of the Lesser Evil made less sense than
>>> now._
>>> 
>>> While some of us may be critical of the US political drama, OUR
>>> CRITICAL ATTENTION MUST ALSO BE DIRECTED AT ANOTHER PLACE: the
>>> ‘Left’ itself. Why has there not been an effective, multi-scalar,
>>> large-scale mobilization of workers (and independent small-scale
>>> producers) independently of bourgeois politics, including
>>> bourgeois-identity politics, to fight for democratic rights (including
>>> the rights of oppressed minorities), and for economic concessions, as
>>> a part of the fight for a government of ordinary working people, that
>>> will use society’s resources to democratically satisfy everyone’s
>>> needs and that takes steps to ensure that people from all races and
>>> backgrounds are treated with respect and that there is peace in the
>>> world?
>>> 
>>> It is indeed utterly disappointing to see the ‘Left’ groups --
>>> especially, the groups to the left of social democratic type forces --
>>> as so massively fragmented when there is a need for their unity.
>>> 
>>> When will the American multi-racial working class comprising those who
>>> are born in the US and who are immigrants, rise against the lesser
>>> evils, the greater evils, and all other evils?
>>> 
>>> And what kind of knowledge in Geography and other social sciences
>>> needs to be produced to help such a process?
>>> 
>>> Raju Raju J Das, York University
> 
> -- 
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> Mark Purcell
> Department of Urban Design & Planning
> University of Washington
> Box 355740, Gould 410
> Seattle WA 98195
> 
> web: http://faculty.washington.edu/mpurcell
> blog: http://pathtothepossible.wordpress.com