Re: An Aging Radical on Race and Politics

On Feb 6, 2:36 pm, RA <nihiloz...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

And these days a guaranteed home and food supply,
to say nothing of ample leisure, is often considered
something of a luxury.

False.

Most people of the world don't have guaranteed
home or food supply. Even in the USA - such things
are not true for the most part. However, for certain countries like
Sweden and Norway where there is an extensive
social human support network such things do
if you are a citizen..



The progress of the civilized world has led us
to a place of slums and hundreds of millions being severely
malnourished.



ISTM you are confusing the results of progress
with the lack of progress. What is *progress*
depends much on your point of view and your value system.


This is difficult for me because I am loathe to discuss the topics of
the title which relentlessly cause so much stress....

you don't have to put on any fake airs - just get to the point.
[ snipped rhetorical fluffy prose for the sake of brevity]
[ snipped off topic non-asian american topic/story]


Race is tied with cultural heritage and, if we want (to) reclaim
something in life more substantial than what the techno-
industrial system provides us, we are potentially a destabilizing
factor within that system.

False .

Technology nor industry is owned or restricted
to benefiting or working with a culture or race(genetic subgrouping).
People may adapt or refuse to adapt technologies, economic
systems, and industrial methods depending on their
religion, current economic status, or other reasons.
For example, The Amish of Pennsylvania who are
of german descent refuse to drive cars and refuse to
adapt certain modern technologies.



There is something of a paradox in strongly identifying with people of
similar racial makeup or appearance.  Ideally, if it led to preserving
sustainable cultural pathways that had been in place for generations,
that would be a good thing.  But when we add strong racial identity
with the techno-industrial system we get something more like the
Nazis.  

False.

Techno industrial systems donot require or favor
any particular political economc or social system
, e.g. a Facist society like WWII Nazi Germany.

And even if we don't end up with the wholesale genocide of
other groups (as when races are co-opted, assimilated, and
homogenized), when it happens that a people take on the habits of
techno-industrial civilization their fundamental values change and, in
the name of progress, they become equally destructive in other ways.


False

Technology and material affluence growth amplify a society's innate
values and beliefs
rather than change them. While technology and wealth can make a bad
problem worst
- it is not the cause of society's problems - why? Just as it is the
sign of a mature
person to take on responsibility for his actions - it is the sign of a
responsible and
rational society to accept and own up to its actions. It's not the gun
that kills but the person
who loads the gun with ammo, points the gun, and fires the gun.


And that brings me to why I got it into my head to write this
article.  In the past I have been opposed to the oligarchic two-party
corporate industrial politics of the USA, particularly in regard to
presidential politics,  but if there has to be a figurehead for the
beast, maybe it doesn't have to be the most bat-*** crazy, spoiled
corrupt cracker that we can find.  Maybe if we can get into office
someone who has undoubtedly experienced oppression and racism from the
under-side... maybe we can see some things change for the better.


changing society is much tougher than that.
Real change in society happens very slowly .
If you are wishing for a hero to rescue you from the slings and
arrows of outrageous time.
It's not going to happen.


I think the humorist Mark Twain got society pegged just right in
his novel a
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"


 I don't want to sound overly hopeful, nor do I want responsibility for
any of the corrupt things he inevitably does in office, but I think
Barack Obama (or perhaps another Black politician later) might be able
to pull a Putney Swope and effect real change.

Obama appears to be more fluff than stuff to me.

He's a good speaker and idealistic but he appears to lack
political skill sets that Clinton and Edwards have.


Obama also messed up his response to the asian
american 80-20 Initiative PAC group and lost their
support to Clinton.



Obama could end up being the Democratic
equivalent of Clarence Thomas....

I don't think so.
I've heard and read about both men
- they are as different as night and day.



POLITICS

First... the war on Iraq.  Beyond oil, this is also just another war
on dark-skinned people around the world....


Even if Obama/Clinton withdraws US forces from Iraq, both are still
committed to fighting
a war in Afghanistan ( as are all the republican candidates) soooo
that means 4 more
years of war which will in all likelihood prevent any president from
overhauling our nation's health
care system or doing anything significant. So if you're hoping the
federal government
is going to end the war and promote health care, etc. - you are
setting yourself up for a huge
disappointment.


Finally... the environment.  This again is an issue which effects the
poor and persons of color disproportionately.  But it is an issue
which transcends race, class, gender and even partly lines.


I disagree.

The poor will suffer brunt of the environomental problems of the world
(The meek shall inherit the world - when the rich doesn't need it or
want it)

being poor sucks.



We need to consume less, not find different things to consume.)



The poor don't consume that much since they have soo little.
It's the rich who control much of the world's consumption,
so it is up to the rich and powerful
to lead the world's economy to a
more environomentally sustainable future.

Global Warming has already started

Some developed countries like Japan and
Germany are taking global warming very seriously

But the USA -so far- has done very little to
redirecting its economy to becoming
a more environmentally sustainable.

From the projections I've read its going to get much worst
but I'll be dead before that happens.

For any of the future generations
of mankind who read this
and are suffering from
the major effects of Global Warming
brought on by my generation
all I can do is
l offer my apologies.




CONCLUSION

I honestly don't hold out much hope for the system at all.



I don't either.

The USA founding fathers initially designed our government
to prevent big government from oppressing the citizenry
but they didnt anticipate huge commerical/business
concerns would abuse/oppresse its citizenry. What
is problematic is that our current system of checks
and balances for government are inadequate at protecting
the government from being manipulation by big business
concerns or from protecting the general public from
oppression/abuse by large corporate concerns.
I haven't seen or heard anything that looks like a
viable fix to this political flaw in our system of
government.

Oh fudge.


Another ethical problem people create for themselves by voting is the
responsibility that they then take on for the problems created by
those elected officials.  Heaven forbid that anyone should vote
successfully and elect a totalitarian warmonger...


For my USA President/Vice President dream team - I'd pick

Colin Powell and Eric Ken Shinseki



yeah, yeah, yeah -- that's the ticket :-)
.