political spectrum Re: [CIMC-work] Re: Imc-chicago-working Digest, Vol 5, Issue 16

[Chris Kaihatsu]

Thomas,

Hi, I have a response to your comments.

I do see the left-right political spectrum as a convenient and accurate way
in which to gauge people's political positions. In general the "left" is
progressive to varying degrees, meaning that leftists are for generalizing
the fruits of the earth and technology to all people of the world. The
"right" is generally for privatization of certain resources and technologies
among a select few.

Sure, on certain issues you'll find that leftists and rightists have a
similar position, but underneath those positions will be very dissimilar
motives. Regardless of the vehicle for achieving political goals, the
overall situation is always definable in terms of whose interests are being
fulfilled, and whose are not.

Even the most "objective" of pursuits, science, is subject to socio-economic
forces under capitalism, since that is the current mode of distribution we
are living under.

I don't think anyone is truly "apathetic" -- people have varying degrees of
interest in various political issues. If you ask them about it, they will
probably tell you. Separately from that is the ongoing question of what
strategies and tactics people can or should use to realize their
(collective) goals. The so-called "apathy" that people refer to may actually
be frustration felt by regular people who don't see an immediate channel for
voicing their concerns and seeing some results from government and society.


Chris



----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Westgard" <tom at ilmechliens.com>
To: <imc-chicago-working at lists.indymedia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 12:33 PM
Subject: [CIMC-work] Re: Imc-chicago-working Digest, Vol 5, Issue 16


> Sorry, I just sent a dummy reply to the list.
>
> What I meant to write was that several different messages I read from
> yesterday seemed connected in a somewhat obscure way.  On the one hand you
> have an observation that the more distant ends of "right wing" and "left
> wing" have an odd way of intersecting from time to time.  One simple
> observation is perhaps that these (literally) one-dimensional labels don't
> actually do much in terms of useful description.  I'm sure this isn't
novel
> to most of you.
>
> But then there's the comment about some mainstream corporate media suit
> complaining that somebody else's news wasn't "objective."  Here's another
> dimension that does something to explain how Birchers and Commies (to make
> it as extreme as possible) end up holding the same views on a particular
> issue:  Neither one accepts the proposition that profitable business is
the
> greatest aspiration our political activities can have, a common
perspective
> in the world of large business enterprise.
>
> It seems to me that the "enemy" we are (or should) all be fighting is
apathy
> and ignorance.  I'm not a "jesus freak," but anyone who feels strongly
> enough to be an activist carrying a sign saying "No King But Jesus" gets
my
> support and sympathy over anyone who stayed home to watch some goddamn
> Hollywood gossip show on TV.
>
> Just a thought about where that sort of prejudice leads.
>
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