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From: Hank Roth (pnews@igc.apc.org)
Subject: PNEWS ONLINE [October 11]
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Date: 1993-10-13 06:33:37 PST
/* Written  6:24 pm  Oct 11, 1993 by odin@netlink.nix.com in igc:p.news */
/* ---------- "PNEWS ONLINE [October 11]" ---------- */
Subject: PNEWS ONLINE [October 11]
From: odin@netlink.nix.com (Hank Roth)
Reply-To: odin@netlink.nix.com

 
                PNEWS ONLINE [October 11, 1993]
                 _                           _
        ________|_|_________________________|_|________
       |                                               |
       |  PNEWS ONLINE/a compilation of excerpts       |
       |  from various pnews conferences.              |
       |  There are 5 pnews conferences, P_news        |
       |  on FidoNet [2 years on the zone 1 backbone.  |
       |  Ask your sysop to get it for you.],          |
       |  pnews-L and pnews.d-L on InterNet [To        |
       |  subscribe, send request to:                  |
       |  <pnews-request@world.std.com>, and there is  |
       |   p.news and p.news.discuss on PeaceNet.      |
       |  [To subscribe to PeaceNet, call:             |
       |  (415) 442-0220]                              |
       |_______________________________________________|
                | |                         | |
                | |                         | |
               _| |__                      _| |__
              / |_| /|                    / |_| /|
             |~~~~~|/`                   |~~~~~|/`
             `~~~~~`                     `~~~~~`
 
These conferences provide an alternative for those  
interested in a *LEFT* perspective and "PROGRESSIVE" issues. The 
objectives of pnews conferences are to provide a cross-fertilization 
of "ALTERNATIVE" progressive and dissident views---to propose and 
discuss new world visions, to present ideas that CHALLENGE 
PREVAILING DOMINANT VIEWS; and to advance the cause of PEACEFUL 
RESOLUTION of matters that greatly concern us. 
 
The primary emphasis for the conferences shall continue to be the 
presentation of "PROGRESSIVE" NEWS, VIEWS, and occasionally some 
POETRY. "Progressive," meaning that which tends to improve society, 
the advancement of knowledge and visions for a better future. 
 
               Hank Roth,
               Moderator/facilitator [pnews conferences]
                                      & PNEWS ONLINE
     ################################################### 
 
From: zodiac@io.org (Zodiac)
[Excerpted]
 
..... the Iron Law of Wages is like gravity. Wages under 
capitalism, when stripped of constant exertion on the part of the 
wage-slaves to lift them, fall.  Toward some subsistence level. 
Toward a minimum enough to keep the worker alive and able to come 
back again tomorrow and replicate her work. 
 
... Endlessly.
 
[...]
 
Henry Ford, for instance, understood that it helps to pay workers 
a bit more because they can _buy_ a bit more.  And this faster 
circulation of money results in a multiplier effect -- it creates 
jobs to service the increased demand, etc.  Ford anticipated 
Keynes.  But, when his security of property/profit was 
threatened, Ford was just another brutal, conservative, 
capitalist.  So, for that matter, was John Maynard Keynes. 
Neither thought twice about the need to use political machines to 
coerce workers into submission, to quash any sacreligious 
attitudes they might harbor in their hearts toward the holy 
edifice of private property. 
 
[..]
 
The great bourgeois revolutions of 1776 and 1789 sought to 
finally put an end to "class co-operation". 
 
If you read Adam Smith (now the beloved economist-philosopher of 
the terminally-stupid Libertarian Party right), you find lots of 
passages that reflect this attitude.  One of my favorite passages 
deals with a discussion of where social wealth comes from. 
 
Smith argued that all "higher culture" comes from leisure, and 
all leisure comes from wealth, and all wealth comes from the 
possession of value, and all value comes either from agricultural 
or manufacturing. So, he noted, society has the bizarre structure 
wherein the leisure-rich ruling class doesn't actually produce 
anything to create its own leisure. 
 
     The labor of some of the most respectable orders of society is like
     that of menial servants, unproductive of any value, and does not
     fix or realize itself in any permanent subject, or vendible
     commodity.... 
 
     The sovereign, for example, with all the officers of justice and
     war who are under him, the whole army and navy are unproductive
     laborers.  They are _servants_ of the public, and are maintained by
     a part of the annual produce of the industry of other people.... 
 
     In the same class must be ranked...  churchmen, lawyers,
     physicians, men of letters of all kinds; players, buffoons,
     musicians, opera-singers, opera-dancers, etc. 
 
                                                     (Wealth of Nations)
 
The aristocratic class most certainly hated Smith for putting 
kings in the same class as clowns.  (I thought it was hilarious, 
myself.  I chuckled quietly for a good twenty minutes after 
reading that.:) 
 
But Smith was unrepentent.  He had set himself the task of 
analyzing the _economic_ foundation of society, and how the 
surplus product of society's labor was apportioned.  He found 
that all the bloated parasitical elites did was _consume_.  They 
belched occassionally and called it culture, to be sure, but they 
actually produced nothing for the physical betterment of 
humanity. 
 
Marx admired this "fuck you" attitude toward one's so-called 
superiors and the social relations which keep them in that lofty 
position.  He called Smith's words the "language of the still-
revolutionary bourgeoisie". 
 
And so Smith was -- revolutionary.  
 
Such bourgeoisie revolutionaries did not call for piddling, if 
not outright demeaning, bullshit -- like asking the ruling 
aristocratic class to please just lower taxes a little...  (or 
maybe extend the health plan to include chiropractors; or give us 
an extra 15-minute break in the afternoon). 
 
Smith pulled no punches: the ruling elite are unnecessary; getting rid of 

them makes society richer. 
 
(NOTE: Of course, once the bourgeoisie took command of the machine of
       state, it became decidedly less revolutionary.  It became
       outright conservative -- sometimes social-democratic and
       "yielding" to worker demands, sometimes police-state fascist in
       determination to "break" unions, depending on the bourgeois sense
       of security.  
 
       But it always operates with an eye to preserving its "legal"
       property possessions.  To help it do this, it now _needs_ those
       legions of unproductive bureaucrats it once spat at venomously. 
       As the ruling class, the bourgeosie discarded Smith's
       ruthless economic analysis and embraced all the lawyers,
       academics, economists, hereditary rich, etc.  This supporting
       cast had once provided the kings with their apologia.  As true
       mercenaries, they could continue to produce arguments for their
       new masters.  Elaborate expositions on why capitalism is so darn
       good for everyone.  Excuses to abuse other human beings.  Moral
       rationales for oppression and misery.)
 
                        The Revolutionary Proletariat
 
Marx grew up in the social wake of the great bourgeois 
revolutions, with the high-sounding talk of complete liberation, 
of the end of classes and despot.  
 
In that environment, Marx's idea seems pretty logical: why stop 
there? Why stop at kings? Should we not keep the revolution 
going? We got rid of the useless warts on the ass of society, the 
aristocratic class.  But that apparently didn't go far enough.  
Look what was (is) happening now: the accumulation of capital in 
the hands of a select few created a brand NEW parasitic class. 
 
From this perspective, the conclusion is obvious.
 
Just as the revolutionary bourgeoisie was right to fucking well 
take possession of the means and relations of production from the 
aristocratic parasite... 
 
So the workers, who actually produce the wealth, should fucking 
well take possession of the means of production for themselves. 
 
Is that the attitude of the working class?
 
Apparently not.  And maybe......the working class ain't all that 
revolutionary.  It sure isn't at this juncture. 
 
The attitude of "class co-operation" in many workers today is 
akin to those bourgeois types who felt they "couldn't make it on 
their own". Frightened, they swore allegience to their beloved 
King.  They needed the King and his Ministers to administer 
affairs, they were mere commoners, what did they know about 
running countries, etc.  Luckily, some elements of the 
bourgeoisie didn't accept such bullshit. 
 
Unfortunately, today, the proletariat seems willing to accept its 
humbled position.  It seems content to work hard to help its 
masters make more money...  so that they might be swept a few 
more crumbs from table. 
 
It's the "House Nigger Syndrome". 
 
                              "House Niggers"
 
Plantation slaves (as Malcolm X pointed out) came in two types: 
house niggers and field niggers.  The field niggers worked hard 
and lived in oppression and turned to religion, and music, etc., 
whatever diversion they could muster to mask the daily misery 
they lived in -- while opulence loomed a few hundred yards away. 
 
But the house nigger is a different case.  The house nigger 
encourages his master.  When the house nigger's master succeeds, 
the house nigger feels himself successful.  "We's doing good, 
ain't we boss?!" Or if things go bad for the master, "Lawdy! We's 
in trouble now!" Indeed.  For if the plantation master is turfed 
out, the house nigger gets thrown back into the ranks of the 
field niggers. 
 
Now, since things "go bad" for their masters when the field 
niggers act up, the house niggers disapprove.  The house niggers 
scold the field niggers.  The house niggers counsel the field 
niggers to just work that much harder and make their master 
richer, then they'll all benefit. 
 
But some field niggers just never listened.  They ran away, or 
acted up. They were just too damn stupid to understand the highly 
intelligent world of "economics".  Damn fools. 
 
And whadda we got today?
 
[...]
 
..... By supporting the capitalist system, you also support the 
"gravitational" Iron Law of Wages.  You commit yourself, as the 
working class, to engage in some Atlas-like struggle to keep the 
roof from falling in on your collective head. 
 
Adam Smith and the revolutionary bourgeoisie finally overthrew 
the entire stinking feudal system, along with the oppressive 
classes it created to maintain it continual reproduction. 
 
Sure, many believed the feudal system, with all its obligations 
and duties, couldn't be overthrown because only chaos would 
result.  After all!  It was ordained by "God"! 
 
Today, non-revolutionary, social-democratic workers seem to think 
there is also nothing possible to replace the current economic 
system.  That without a hierachical system of ownership, there 
will be chaos.  After all!  It is ordained by "nature"!  The 
"free" market! 
 
So...  they seem content to plead for little "gifts" from the 
bosses in return for which they pledge their undying allegience. 
 
[...]
 
When will American workers finish the job the revolutionary 
American bourgoeisie started? 
 
              **************************************
 
                          Civil Disobedience
[Excerpt]
               by Henry David Thoreau
 
              "I heartily accept the  motto, "That government is  best
          which governs least"; and I should  like to see it acted  up
          to more rapidly and systematically.  Carried out, it finally
          amounts to this, which  also I believe--"That government  is
          best which governs not  at all"; and  when men are  prepared
          for it, that will be the  kind of government which the  will
          have.   Government is  at best  but an  expedient; but  most
          governments are usually, and all governments are  sometimes,
          inexpedient.  The objections which have been brought against
          a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and  deserve
          to prevail, may also at  last be brought against a  standing
          government.   The  standing  army  is only  an  arm  of  the
          standing government. The  government itself,  which is  only
          the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will,
          is equally  liable to  be abused  and perverted  before  the
          people can act through it.  Witness the present Mexican war,
          the work  of  comparatively  a  few  individuals  using  the
          standing government as  their tool; for  in the outset,  the
          people would not have consented to this measure."
               "This American government--what is  it but a  tradition,
          though  a  recent  one,   endeavoring  to  transmit   itself
          unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its
          integrity?  It has  not the vitality and  force of a  single
          living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.  It is
          a sort of wooden  gun to the people  themselves.  But it  is
          not the less necessary  for this; for  the people must  have
          some complicated machinery  or other, and  hear its din,  to
          satisfy  that   idea   of  government   which   they   have.
          Governments show thus  how successfully men  can be  imposed
          upon, even impose  on themselves, for  their own  advantage.
          It is excellent,  we must  all allow.   Yet this  government
          never  of  itself  furthered  any  enterprise,  but  by  the
          alacrity with which it got out of its way.  It does not keep
          the country free.  It does not settle the West.  It does not
          educate.  The character inherent in the American people  has
          done all that has been accomplished; and it would have  done
          somewhat more, if  the government had  not sometimes got  in
          its way.  For government is an expedient, by which men would
          fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has  been
          said, when it is most  expedient, the governed are most  let
          alone by it.  Trade and  commerce, if they were not made  of
          india-rubber, would never  manage to  bounce over  obstacles
          which legislators are continually putting in their way;  and
          if one were  to judge  these men  wholly by  the effects  of
          their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would
          deserve to be classed  and punished with those  mischievious
          persons who put obstructions on the railroads."
              "But, to  speak practically  and  as a  citizen,  unlike
          those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for,  not
          at one no government, but at once a better government.   Let
          every man make known what  kind of government would  command
          his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it."
              
           **********************************************
                                                                          
     
      "We are obliged not to take life -- we should not take the 
     attitude that we are doing the animals a favour by not eating 
    them. They have a right to live just as much as we have a right 
    to live."   -- Isaac Bashevis Singer                            
   
      "Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living 
      things, man will not himself find peace" -- Albert Schweitzer   
                                                                          
     
           **********************************************
 
From: Xavier Crement, M.D. [posted to pnews-L]
 
 "Like almost everyone else, I have been dealing with assholes 
all my life. For most of this time, however, I have been, like 
most of society, trapped in our age-old concepts of assholism. 
Failing to recognize it as a disease, I simply accepted it as a 
character flaw that could be modified or eliminated at will." 
 
"I have now come to understand the true nature of assholism. It 
is an addiction as bad as alcoholism, chemical dependency, or 
codependency. It afflicts major portions of the population---yet 
most assholes are not the least bit aware that they are 
assholes!" 
 
 
**** "I'm OK, but you're an asshole"
                 Cardinal Pushing
 
           **********************************************
                                                                          
     
                                                                          
     
        "Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds    
    
         change color and fall from the trees."                           
    
                              -David Letterman                            
     
 
           **********************************************
 
        "I tried to get a drink in the terminal bar.  The bartender 
         asked to see ID.... I was living a nightmare.  I was 
         stranded in a happy paranoid land where the only people 
         allowed to drink are people who drive."
                            - Kyle Baker, _Why I Hate Saturn_
                                  
 
           **********************************************
 
   Just recently in Indiana, a man suspected of swallowing a bag of 
   cocaine was refused medical help because he wouldn't sign a 
   confession.  Other inmates called for help as he suffered 
   hallucinations and seizures and, finally, died.  The state 
   trouper who arrested him is quoted as saying: "If Mr. Antecki was 
   really and truly serious about what he had swallowed or ate and 
   he was concerned about his health, then he would've gone ahead 
   [and signed the confession]".  The county prosecuter agreed that 
   there was no wrong doing on the part of authorities, and declined 
   to press any charges. 
 
           **********************************************
   
   From: Ribaud
 
   Camus speaks of this fate of man being the quest which forever 
   eludes him in Sysphus and this view is expressed in the works of 
   Franz Kafka and Kierkegaard, as in "shit happens." 
                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
           **********************************************
 
                  PLAYING BY THE RULES
                                   BY Hank Roth
   
          Failed businesses, foreclosures, bankcrupcies, 
                    powerlessness of the poor,
           The newly homeless, locked out generations,
                       and much, much more. 
                  Dispossessed, disenfranchised, 
                      call this a recession. 
                         To the affected, 
        this kind of anguish is a full fledged depression.
                  Where is compassion, empathy, 
                      concern for humanity?. 
               This morrass and distorted morality 
                     is more than a calamity. 
            How can we call ourselves an enlightened, 
                        civilized nation,
            When even basic rights, like medical care, 
               have been the subject of abrogation. 
           The news about the economy is discouraging, 
                       no way to escape it. 
                 Makes living feel like drowning 
                or falling down a bottomless pit,  
                 Listen, they say this is America 
                     where consumerism rules,
                 All you need do is go to school 
                    and get your mighty tools.
                       Well, listen to me; 
          it takes plenty of luck and chances are thin, 
                   This is really a crap shoot 
                   and you'll probably not win. 
               Free enterprise, play by the rules, 
                   and you'll ultimately loose.
                  Don't be a snook, in the end, 
               you'll realize its all been a ruse. 
 
           **********************************************
 
From: charless@sco.COM (charles stross)
 
The UK government's justifications for its imperialist presence 
in Northern Ireland bear a striking similarity to the US 
government's attitude to Central America. "It's our back yard, 
our interests will be harmed if we get out, they'll go communist 
if we ignore them, and anyway they aren't competent to run their 
own affairs." It's a complex mixture of chauvanism, racism and 
economic cynicism that dictates a profit motive for hanging on to 
the occupied territories and denying that anything is wrong. 
 
Next time you feel inclined to ask why the UK doesn't get the 
hell out of Northern Ireland, just think about the last thing you 
heard a State Department spokesperson say about why there are 
US troops in Panama. Imagine that you are Irish, and that the 
State Department is the Northern Ireland office, and that they're
talking about where you live. Now try to figure out a reasoned 
response. Better still, try to imagine you're a Panamanian ...
 
In the same way that the stupidity and futility of 
the UK occupation of Northern Ireland is a lot clearer outside
the UK -- where I happen to live -- the idiocy and brutality
of US policy in Central America is a lot more obvious if you
don't live in  Missouri. But listening to what the bastards say,
then thinking yourself into the shoes of the people they're talking
about is a good way of defeating the programming.
 
==========================================================================
=====
 "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?" - Nick Lowe 
==========================================================================
====
 
 
           Anyway the Left wind blows ...
                                                //\         /\\
                                               || * \ . . / * ||
                                                \\____\X/____//
                                                 / *  /O\  * \
                                                 \__/  "  \__/
 
==========================================================================
====
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists 
elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact 
us."     -- _Calvin and Hobbes_
==========================================================================
====
          "I live my life in growing orbits 
        which move out over the things of the world.
      .....and I have been circling for a thousand years,
      and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
          or a great song."   (Rainer Maria Rilke)
      ---------------------------------------------------
               ## De Omnibus Est Dubatandum ##
 
There are 5 -*pnews conferences*- [P_news on FidoNet], [p.news and 
p.news.discuss on PeaceNet],  [pnews.d and pnews-L on InterNet], 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you have access to InterNet and wish to subscribe to a pnews 
conference there, send request to: <pnews-request@world.std.com> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to PeaceNet's worldwide network by 
  calling: (415) 442-0220. Tell them Hank from "pnews" sent you. 
[There are 2 pnews conferences on PeaceNet]. 
------------------------------------------------------------- 
<Hank Roth> odin@world.std.com 
            pnews@igc.apc.org. 
            (On Fidonets at 151/101) 
       ################################################### 
                           
                PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS!
         
 

--                    
INTERNET:  odin@netlink.nix.com (Hank Roth)
UUCP:   ...!ryptyde!netlink!odin
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