Re: [Marxism] What is a Proxy War? | Darth Nader

2013-06-16 Thread Allan Harris
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


A proxy war has sometimes been compared to Vietnam and Korea. Both countries 
were proxies for the U.S. (South V. and South K.) and the Soviet Union and 
China.

The Syrian government would be the proxy for Russia and Iran, the Syrian rebels 
would be the proxies for the U.S.



 From: Marv Gandall marvga...@gmail.com
To: alnh...@yahoo.com 
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2013 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] What is a Proxy War? | Darth Nader
 




On 2013-06-15, at 11:30 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:

 What is a Proxy War?
 Posted by DarthNader ⋅ April 13, 2013    ⋅ 2 Comments
 
 Is what’s happening in Syria today a revolution, a civil war or a proxy war? 

Robert Fisk is reporting in today's Independent that Iran is sending 4000 
troops to Syria.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-to-send-4000-troops-to-aid-president-assad-forces-in-syria-8660358.html


Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com


Re: [Marxism] What is a Proxy War? | Darth Nader

2013-06-16 Thread Allan Harris
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I agree. However, the proxy need not be limited to ideological or 
capitalist/socialist conflicts. The war in Syria seems to be a religious one 
between the Sunnis and |Shia, which makes the choosing of sides by the U.S. 
particularly stupid. 



 From: Marv Gandall marvga...@gmail.com
To: alnh...@yahoo.com 
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2013 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] What is a Proxy War? | Darth Nader
 


On 2013-06-16, at 9:44 AM, Allan Harris wrote:

 A proxy war has sometimes been compared to Vietnam and Korea. Both countries 
 were proxies for the U.S. (South V. and South K.) and the Soviet Union and 
 China.
 
 The Syrian government would be the proxy for Russia and Iran, the Syrian 
 rebels would be the proxies for the U.S.
 
 On 2013-06-15, at 11:30 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:
 
 What is a Proxy War?
 Posted by DarthNader ⋅ April 13, 2013    ⋅ 2 Comments
 
 Is what’s happening in Syria today a revolution, a civil war or a proxy war? 


The reference to a proxy war obscures, often deliberately so, the deeper 
revolutionary character of these mass struggles. It also blurs the very 
important differences between the socialist-led struggles of yesteryear and 
today's Islamist-led movements. The Vietnamese, North Korean, and other 
movements were consciously anticapitalist and and overturned existing property 
relations during and following the conquest of power. The populist Islamist-led 
movements, beginning with Iran, have been more deformed ideologically and have 
nowhere aimed at, much less, completed the same fundamental social 
transformations. How dependent on outside support were the indigenous socialist 
and Islamist revolutionary movements in each instance is a matter of 
conjecture. But again that shouldn't obscure the consequential differences 
flowing from the fact that the left-wing movements received assistance from 
comparable anticapitalist regimes, ie. the USSR and China, while the
 Islamists, except in the case of Iran, have been mainly dependent on aid from 
the Western powers and Gulf states. 


Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com


Re: [Marxism] Los Angeles Review of Books - Behind The Candelabra And The Queerness Of Liberace

2013-06-05 Thread Allan Harris
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==





Most big-budget films with leading gay characters are almost exclusively 
about sex, and more particularly about the suffering of the principals. 



There may be a kind of cultural law that until an oppressed group attains 
freedom the artistic representation of them will remain as a group. Womens' 
films were about women as women struggling for freedom until maybe the mid 70s, 
there were blacks as only civil rights figures, etc.

Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com


Re: [Marxism] Terry Eagleton says we’ve forgotten how to read. Does it matter? - The Globe and Mail

2013-06-02 Thread Allan Harris
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==






- Original Message -
From: Daniel Lindvall daniel.lindv...@filmint.nu
To: alnh...@yahoo.com
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2013 10:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism]
 Terry Eagleton says we’ve forgotten how to read. Does it matter? - The Globe 
and Mail

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


So really, where is the objectively forcing argument for preferring a brand of 
malt whiskey to any other or, for that matter, to any other drink that is 
neither better or worse for your health? Near-consensus among the expertise? 
We'd all be economic liberals in that case. Hopefully the book is less crude 
than the review makes one believe. 

Website: http://filmint.nu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FilmInt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/FilmInt


I think Eagleton is saying that taste is a skill, like reading or drinking 
whiskey; it has to be learned, it is an acquired taste. A skill has to be 
taught, which requires a teacher, which means that taste (at least in a 
literary sense) is a socially acquired skill. If a particular skill, however, 
is associated with economic and class power then it should not be surprising 
that teaching that skill is highly controlled by those in power. With very few 
exceptions only neo-liberal, neo-classical economics is taught in school, esp 
in the U.S. The appreciation for malt whiskey is either irrelevant or a 
perfectly permissible bourgeois-approved practice. 

Economics, class, sex, imperialism, etc. are definitely off limits and can only 
be taught (and thus denied) by those either approved by the bourgeoisie or by 
those who are effectively inaudible. Thus, the preference for neo-liberalism is 
determined by, as you say, a near-consensus of the approved expertise. We may 
not all be economic liberals, but the dominant economics is liberalism.

Taste is, I would say, socially acquired. The taste for economic liberalism is 
also socially acquired, whereas Marxist economics is strictly socially 
prohibited, except possibly for the self-taught.
1 jun 2013 kl. 16:34 skrev Louis Proyect:

 ==
 Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
 ==
 
 
 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/a-major-critic-says-weve-forgotten-how-to-read-does-it-matter/article12128764/
 
 
 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
 Set your options at: 
 http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/daniel.lindvall%40filmint.nu


Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/alnhrs2%40yahoo.com

Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com


Re: [Marxism] The Merchants of Shame » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

2013-06-02 Thread Allan Harris
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


how do you clip extraneous text without deleting the entire email?

Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com


[Marxism] Has imperialism changed its stripes?

2011-07-05 Thread Allan

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I've been following the debate over the war in Libya on the list, and 
have some questions for those who generally put forward the 
anti-pro-Qadaffi position, as I'll refer to it.


The Libyan opposition (the rebels) are supported by NATO and the 
western imperialist powers.  If they represent a genuine force for 
democracy and self-determination, why are the imperialists supporting 
them militarily and politically?


Would a victory for the opposition on the basis of the NATO intervention 
be a positive step for democracy, self-determination, and ultimately for 
the development of socialism in Libya and in the broader Middle East in 
general?


How do you explain this?




Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com


Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Allan

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==



 Message: 10
 Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 20:15:11 -0500
 From: sandia sandia1...@gmail.com
 To: marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
 Subject: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
 Message-ID:
AANLkTincNE8i6qQLSU1vYZeX=n1-vccxuyrncpqpv...@mail.gmail.com
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

 Can anyone point me toward reading material that surveys the causes of
 the fall of the USSR?

Check out this highly informative and very well-written book by Keeran 
and Kenny:


Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Roger Keeran, Thomas Kenny

iUniverse:

http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000181575







Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com