I think that relatively comfortable people (and in global terms,
>yes, most Northern people are relatively comfortable - but this is another
>huge area...
YES it is, because some are most defintely more comfortable than others...
...will always be annoyed at others throwing too much truth in their faces,
whether or not it is done by street protest or some less confrontational
method...
The problem that some people face today is that they have too MUCH 'truth'
(and 'truth' here is a dangerous word - be careful how you use it) thrust
in their faces, if truth is the reality of realising your identity project
is 'flawed' in the eyes of corporate capitalism and Blair and his
cronies...and now, it appears, to many 'critical' academics
The world I want is one where people in Africa (for example) do not suffer,
starve, and die because politicians (and people) in the North refuse to do
anything about the total unfairness of global trading and financial systems
on the grounds that it keeps them relatively happy and prosperous. I want a
world where we
don't load our problems onto future generations, other parts of the world,
and on other species in order to bring limited short term benefits to a
few. The world's problems won't be solved by the continuance of current
economic trajectories. What do you suggest we do about it?
What makes me want to yell with anger and cry with dispair at the same time
is that I would totally identify with the above paragraph - but I just see
the modes of protest that are being advocated by anarchists incorporated as
being nothing pissing against the wind, alienating what support they might
have got and changing the situation not one jot. I spent two years in
retail, my parents run their own business, and I am heartily sick of
hearing people revelling in property destruction because they believe
they're participating in 'bringing down the system'. There is much about
capitalism that in my view is good, just as there is much of it which is
bad. Revolutions always replace dictators with other dictators, elites
with new elites, inequality with new forms of inequality, one History with
another History... (read Orwell, read every Utopianist and Distopianist you
can get your hands on) but invariably, the real losers, every time, from
every transition - feudalism to capitalism to post-capitalism to socialism
to post-modernism to communism...remain the same: those who are the
implicit 'flawed goods' of whatever system happens to be in operation.
And, I'll say again: I find it outrageous that just as some of that group
have the audacity to aspire, even to gain, some of the resources that our
system does offer, they are told - sorry, you're doing it all wrong......
Sounds horribly like our attitude towards the developing world...hey, we
exploited you, but now you're in a position to take some of what we have,
you can't have it, because we're so enlightened we realise it's been a
terrible thing all these years. Academia is so full of ironies.... but you
don't find me laughing.
Graham______________________________________________________________________
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