From: David Wright <wright@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The continuation of Realpolitik -- a rant
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, May 23, 2008, 2:24 AM

It's no surprise you were confused.  I tend to be rather opaque in my allusions.  I encourage care, though,  in presuming overt racism.  We are all covertly prejudicial, whether or not we are willing to admit such a non-PC failing.  But PC behaviour is merely the adoption of form in order to satisfy our consience.  It doesn't change a damned thing.

 

 

Andy:  The way the world is and has always been, form is all there is, and given your remarks about vegetarians below, if we can't manage something as concrete as food in a humane and sustainable manner, then truly, form is our only hope for civility.  It's not so much a hope as a straw to clutch.

D.W. We must begin by taking the power out of words.  All of those dirty words become non-sensical, indeed, even a vehicle for change themselves when reconstructed with humourous intent.  I could make some bland references to 'friends of colour' with whom I enjoy such banter, but frankly who gives a damn.  That's between mah niggas and me.

 

Andy:  I see your point, but I doubt that calling someone a nigger is going to make anyone like themselves better, even if they're doing it to themselves.  It's called self talk and it means they've internalized the crap that was thrown at them.  All it does is drive people deeper and deeper into a caste.  Also, comedians use sewer language regularly.  Has that made the words less powerful?  Or has it made the comedians more boring and predictable and covered in ik?

 

DW:  Regarding the whole veg thing:  Do it if you need to make yourself feel better.  It doesn't change a thing.  I was adamantly vegan for about a decade before realising that decrying natural behaviour is as absurd as decrying non-PC behaviour.   If I truly wanted to be vegan, or even lacto-ovo, I had to stop living.  I couldn't ride a bike or drive a car (rubber tires) , blow bubbles, or use soap (glycerine/glycerol), etc. ad nauseum ad infinitum.  In the modern world, it is almost impossible to be truly veg; in the end, it becomes pretense.  Liberation is a personal phenomenon.  Transcending the -isms is the only true freedom.

 

 

Andy:  It absolutely changes everything.  It stops torturing animals horrifically.  It saves millions if not billions of *tons* of water.  I saves the soil and it results in a lot more food for everybody.  Meat is natural, but there is nothing natural about today's meat. 

 

You're right, there's no such thing as a no impact man.  But there could be a minimal or low impact man, and bicycles are definitely the way to do it.  Transcending isms and personal freedom sounds good, but it's just an excuse to eat meat and 'do your thing'.  And maybe in a world of 6.6 billion and growing on a shrinking planet, eat, drink and be merry is all that's possible now.  But just call it the ism that it is, which is selfish-ism.  You'll have 6.599 billion companions.  They just won't be as honest as you will be.