Dear all,
David Wood wrote:
Protest will...annoy the settled comfortable majority who don't want to
hear about the bad things. Protest will annoy people who want a quiet life.
Can I add that the form of protest advocated on 30th November will also
alienate and do nothing to empower the vast numbers of the 'uncomfortable'
who also want a quiet life. What is so wrong about wanting a quiet life,
anyway? Most people I know - who are not the comfortable middle-classes
implicated by comments such as the above - would like nothing better than
not have to worry about where the money for the next bill is paid, whether
or not they can afford to MOT the car, etc. They, in fact, would dearly
love to have the luxury of being able to contribute to a debate like
this..... Yes, you could argue that it is capitalism that has created
these demands on them - but every other system in existence (and yet to be
thought of) presents its own set of less than desirable conditions.
To imply that aspirations towards something other than narrow identity
politics, the impossible goal of insituting mode of production/way of
life/whatever you want to call it that is non-exploitative (a contradiction
in terms, but a goal that increasingly is desirable apparently just because
it is impossible), setting up in a tee-pee and freezing every winter (and
now I'm the one setting up the figure of straw to rail against) are somehow
wrong beggars belief. I mean, lets have a bit of a reality check, here.
What really bothers me is, that academics who advocate this are those that
are quite securely positioned within the system...and, the forms of
identity politics that are at work here are also enabled by capitalism. It
seems a trifle rich, on this basis, to implicitly criticsize others to
aspiring towards many of the comforts the more secure take for granted.
There's getting to be an imerialist, not to say highly puritanical,
tendency amongst some of the advocates of 'anarchy in the uk', that sees
only one form of identity as 'valid' and authentic. I take entirely
people's point that capitalism can lead to alienation, emptiness, and
meaning, but so can many other modes of production.
Best wishes
Graham Gardner
University of Wales
Aberystwyth
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