Re: dreams and nightmares

From: Michael Eldred (artefact@T-ONLINE.DE)
Date: Fri May 16 2003 - 12:48:46 EDT


Cologne 16-May-2003

Nicola Taylor schrieb Fri, 16 May 2003 19:22:46 +1000:

> Comrades.I completely agree with Riccardo.  Willingness to defend
> gross human rights abuses (of the kind we would condemn if Batista had
> commited them) from so-called 'socialist states' is something that I
> personally will never defend.  To say this openly is not to deny the
> extremely difficult decisions that the Cuban government has been faced
> with over the years.  Difficult political circumstances do not however
> justify oppression.Nicky
>
>      ----- Original Message -----
>      From:Riccardo Bellofiore
>      To: OPE-L@sus.csuchico.edu
>      Sent: Friday, 16 May 2003 8:55
>      Subject: Re: dreams and nightmares
>       Dear comrades, I find the part below of the communique
>      really too mild as a declaration  of preoccupation for what
>      is happening in Cuba. A solidarity with Cuba can be put
>      forward and be convincing (at least for me) only from a
>      position much stronger and clearer. The points in bold
>      signal those part of the very few lines (= 2) on capital
>      punishment in Cuba which make those lines, rather than
>      criticism, strong support to what is going on and cannot be
>      accepted, either from Cuba or whatever government. To defend
>      Cuba, we must today let Castro understand that the behaviour
>      of Cuba's government on capital punishment, repression of
>      dissenters and homosexuals, etc. cannot be justified and
>      supported. in solidarity r At 0:20 -0400 14-05-2003, michael
>      a. lebowitz wrote:
>
>     > . Despite our pain about the recent use of capital
>     > punishment in Cuba, a pain we know is shared by the Cuban
>     > government itself, we understand that we must fight
>     > against the nightmare that threatens Cuba and all our
>     > dreams for a better world. We denounce the current process
>     > of violence on the part of the U.S. government. We oppose
>     > turning Cuba into another Iraq, and we reaffirm our
>     > solidarity with the Cuban people and their revolution.
>

Dreams and nightmares indeed!

Better to give up all your "dreams for a better world" altogether. There
has been enough Platonism shaping Western (now planetary) history --
above all through its appropriation by Christianity. The idea of an
"ideal" is one of the most damaging in all of world history (next to
that of God as posited by the Abrahamic religions). The West has only
just been getting over Christian Platonism during the last two
centuries.

As they say these days, "Get real!", just like Aristotle got real with
Plato two and a half thousand years ago. The question of reality is the
question of being, and it remains in oblivion today.

The apologetics above is of the same kind as that swallowed by
well-meaning socialists regarding the show trials in Moscow during the
thirties.

Michael
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-  artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art  _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
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_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-
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>     >
>
>     > May 8, 2003
>
>      --
>
>      Riccardo Bellofiore
>      Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche
>      "Hyman P. Minsky"
>      Via dei Caniana 2
>      I-24127 Bergamo, Italy
>      e-mail:   riccardo.bellofiore@unibg.it
>      direct  +39-035-2052545
>      secretary +39-035 2052501
>      fax:  +39 035 2052549
>      homepage: http://www.unibg.it/dse/homebellofiore.htm
>
>      Al signor K chiesero cosa stesse facendo.
>      Il signor K rispose: "Sto lavorando duro
>      per preparare il mio prossimo errore"
>
>      What are you working on, Herr K was asked.
>      Herr K replied: "I am working hard,
>      I am carefully preparing my next error"
>
>      Bertolt Brecht
>


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