It is theoretical, of course, but to have any value theory has to be
based on actual real world practice. What I don't understand is why you
have to say that it is somehow mechanical and that you don't think that
human behavior can be based on rules like the rules that govern cells or
molecules. I have just now and as long as I have been posting on this
list refuted that concept myself.
---
Albert Einstein
“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
― Albert Einstein
On 10/9/2019 5:44 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
OK. That's the answer provided by the theory. To me, it sounds very
theoretical or mechanistic. That's probably because I'm not a true believer.
Back in the old days when I was in social work school and afterward, I thought
that Freudian theory explained everything. Eventually, I stopped believing in
that as the one and only explanation. I found variants of it helpful in
explaining a lot of what goes on and I still do. But I added on some snippets
of socialist theory to my world view. But I don't believe that human behavior
can be explained by rules that assume that it is as predictable as the behavior
of cells or molecules. Of course I could be wrong because I don't know very
much about cells and nolecules. It's certainly obvious to me that human beings
are easily manipulatable by other human beings. We see it every day. Evan Reese
just put a book on Bookshare called Novacene. He went to a lot of trouble to do
it and I'd never heard of it so I downloaded it and began reading it. But I was
in the middle of another book which I'd interrupted twice so I went back to
that and haven't gone back to Novacene yet. But it does look rather
complicated, way out of my comfort zone, something about our machines taking
over control of the world. I have a feeling that the theories of the 100 year
old scientist who wrote it, destroy Marxist theory.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted
sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2019 3:09 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
Re: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal Carl, I
am not in a much better position than you to do much either. But it would be
good to support those who are in a position to do what must be done.
What must be done is to combine propaganda with agitation. The propaganda is to
patiently explain the patterns and forces that put us all in the position we
are in. However, propaganda alone will not instigate the masses. If that is all
you do about the best reaction you can expect to get is a concession that you
are showing some nice words. Agitation is pointing out to working people just
how they are being treated unfairly and how their coworkers are too. Then show
them that as individuals they can't do much to alleviate the situation, but if
they join together with their coworkers and with workers outside of their
immediate environs they can collectively have an effect. That is, encourage
strikes and other collective actions. Once they experience a few victories the
propaganda will start to make more sense to them and they then can learn how to
synthesize that knowledge to apply to the struggles they are in.
---
Albert Einstein
???Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.???
????? Albert Einstein
On 10/9/2019 1:36 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
block quote
Well, I can't say that I feel sympathy for self serving people either.
It's simply a waste of time and energy.?? But I do see how they have become
misguided by a never ending barrage of BS from the American Industrial/Military
Complex.
Each time we travel from home, across several states, I am confronted by the
lack of balance in the news and in the listening and viewing offerings.??
Still, while feeling sympathy?? for them is out of the question, how do we go
about showing them the foolishness of their current actions?
Our hopes seem to be at the mercy of an inept Democratic Party. Or a congress
that is so divided that it can't even understand that it is divided against
itself.?? In my current situation, along with my age and related issues, about
all I can do to resist is to continue speaking my opinions, and staying
involved in exploring the news.
Carl Jarvis: Resting up from a relaxing vacation.
On 10/9/19, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
??wrote:
block quote
I'm having a difficult time, having sympathy with the people whom you're
defining as the working class. Whatever we call them, they are 40% or more of
the population. They support empire. They watch reality TV. They are committed
to conspicuous consumption. They did not spontaneously protest in the streets
when Muslims were banned from entering the US or when Immigrant children were
separated from their parents or when Immigrants were told that they could no
longer enter our country for asylum or when our president suggested in rallies
and in tweets, that certain of our people be attacked.
They don't care that he's financially benefiting from the presidency or that
he's undoing every social advance that this country has made since the 1930's.
They don't even know that their parents did as well as they did and that they
benefited from that, as a result of the social welfare state that was created
during the Roosevelt administration. They believe that they're all self made
men and that what they've made is being taken away from them by people of
color, immigrants, Muslims, uppity women, and probably, Jews.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From:
blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
??On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2019 12:03 PM
To:
blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
The real heading should read, "The Domino Effect of Trump's 2016 Election"
While American History relates many low points in our struggle to maintain a
"People's Government", I believe we are looking at the lowest one to date.
With our attention distracted by the tweets and foolish remarks tossed out daily by
Donald Trump, any input by the Working Class Americans is being dismantled by the
"Trumpeteers".
Our founding fathers were concerned that there be separation of Church and
State, and that there be safeguards protecting the Landholders and wealthy
citizens.
But they had no idea that times would change, and the serious threat would come
from the Corporate/Military takeover.
It will be interesting to see just how long it takes Working Class Americans to
realize that their freedom has been taken from them, and that it was not the
doing of Marxists, Illegals, the Media, or the Colored and the Jews and
Muslims.?? Sadly, by the time any suggestion of a Working Class Slave System
becomes apparent, this Internet will be totally controlled, and any protest
will be met with force.
Our great grandchildren will know the outcome of the current efforts to control "the
people", merely by reading their history books.
Remember, history is written by the winners.
Carl Jarvis: still looking for the ghost of Howard Zinn.
On 10/8/19, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
??wrote:
block quote
The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan?? (Brookings Institution / Flickr)
U.S. President Donald Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Sunday, October 6, that the United States troops inside Syria would not defend
the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have built an enclave inside Syria along a
section of the Turkish border. The Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) are made up largely of Kurdish factions, who set up this armed force to
defend the mainly Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. When the U.S. began its
attack on the Islamic State (ISIS), the SDF became the ground forces beneath
the U.S. bombers. Now, the U.S. has decided to betray the sacrifice of the SDF.
Turkey has previously threatened to attack the SDF and other Kurdish groups
inside Syria east of the River Euphrates. In 2014 and 2015, Turkey signaled
that it would invade Syria. In August 2016, the Turkish military crossed the
border with U.S. air cover. Erdogan said???at that time???that Turkey was going
to attack both ISIS and the Kurdish militia group, People???s Protection Units
(YPG). This operation, which was largely around the Syrian town of Jarabulus
along the Syria-Turkey border, was known as Operation Euphrates Shield. The
2016 intervention opened the door to two further interventions in northern
Idlib (2017) and in Afrin (2018), the last operation with an Orwellian
name???Operation Olive Branch. These were targeted attacks and not an all-out
war on the SDF and other Syrian forces.
Now, Erdogan???s government is preparing to enter Syria for a major military
operation against the SDF. The U.S. forces have already left the observation
posts at Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain???both key places where the U.S. monitored
Turkish troops and shielded the SDF from Turkish attacks. That shield has now
been removed. U.S. forces remain in the region, but there is every indication
that they will remove themselves from the main hubs of the SDF.
The SDF is now vulnerable to the full might of the Turkish army. The political
leaders of the SDF say that they would defend their enclave???known as
Rojava??????at all costs.??? Over the past year, Ilham Ehmed, the co-chair of
the Syrian Democratic Council, has warned that Turkey is determined to enter
this ???safe zone??? (or what the U.S. calls a ???security mechanism???). Ehmed
said???before this recent announcement???that Turkey will invade Rojava,
harshly attack the SDF, and re-settle the three million Syrian refugees who are
now in Turkey.
These refugees are not from the area east of the River Euphrates.
Not only will the Turkish government wreck Rojava, but it will ethnically
cleanse the area by bringing in large numbers of non-Kurdish Syrians. It is
important to recall that the population of Syrian Kurds is around two million.
Ehmed has expressed her worry about this attempt to render the Syrian Kurds of
Rojava extinct.
What will a Turkish invasion mean for the area?
1.It will destroy the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Rojava. For all its great
limitations, the government of Rojava has experimented with various forms of
democracy, including economic and cultural democracy.
2.It will destroy the social integrity of the cultural world east of the River
Euphrates. The transport of three million Syrians???largely from the western
part of Syria???will change the character of this region, which is the homeland
of the Syrian Kurds. In the long run, this population transfer could annihilate
Syrian Kurdish society.
Besides, if Turkey does this, it would have violated Article 49 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention (1949).
3.It might force the Syrian armed forces to march on the region, to defend its
borders. In the Iranian parliament, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said
that Turkey should respect Syria???s borders, and that Turkey must allow the
Syrian armed forces to establish their presence at the border. If the Syrian
army moves on the border, it will open up the possibility of a clash between
Syria and Turkey, which might lead to tensions between the armed forces of
Iran, Russia, and the United States.
4.Since 2017, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey have been part of the Astana
Group, whose purpose was to find a way to dial-down the bloody war in Syria.
Turkish intervention into Syria will raise the possibility of the revival of
war inside Syria. Turkey???s proxy groups that were part of the attack on the
Syrian government will be emboldened to try once more to overthrow the
government in Damascus.
5.If Iranian and U.S. forces clash in Syria, will this give the U.S.
another
reason to open up a fuller war against Iran, including the bombardment of Iran
itself?
6.It will strengthen a greatly weakened Erdogan government.
It is worthwhile to be alarmed by these developments. The United Nations has
taken the correct assessment of the situation. The UN???s Humanitarian
Coordinator for Syria???Panos Moumtzis???said, ???We don???t know what is going
to happen. ??? We are preparing for the worst.??? So should the rest of us.
This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media
Institute.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing
fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent
Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than twenty
books, including The Darker
Nations: A People???s History of the Third World (The New Press, 2007), The
Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013), The Death
of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California
Press, 2016) and Red Star Over the Third World (LeftWord, 2017). He writes
regularly for Frontline, the Hindu, Newsclick, AlterNet and BirG??n.
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