[Marxism-Thaxis] Tunisian Protests Spread to Algeria, Yemen
Tunisian Protests Spread to Algeria, Yemen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDjYkL3fpJI Drawing inspiration from the revolt in Tunisia, thousands of Yemenis fed up with their president's 32-year rule demanded his ouster Saturday in a noisy demonstration that appeared to be the first large-scale public challenge to the strongman. (Jan. 22) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Al Qaeda And the U.S., Still Battling
Peter L. Bergen THE LONGEST WAR The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda By Peter L. Bergen Illustrated. 473 pages. Free Press. $28. Enlarge This Image Tyler Hicks/The New York Times American and Afghan soldiers after a bomb was detonated in Kandahar Province in December. Books of The Times Al Qaeda And the U.S., Still Battling By MICHIKO KAKUTANI Published: January 17, 2011 By now there are already dozens of books — a few of them, groundbreaking works of reportage — about Al Qaeda and 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Bush and Obama administrations’ management of national security. What makes “The Longest War,” a new book by Peter L. Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst, particularly useful is that it provides a succinct and compelling overview of these huge, complex subjects, drawing upon other journalists’ pioneering work as well as the author’s own expertise in terrorism and interviews with a broad spectrum of figures including leading counterterrorism officials, members of the Taliban, failed suicide bombers, family and friends of Osama bin Laden and top American military officers. For readers interested in a highly informed, wide-angled, single-volume briefing on the war on terror so far, “The Longest War” is clearly that essential book. Mr. Bergen, who was part of the CNN team that interviewed Mr. bin Laden in 1997, and who has written two earlier books about the Al Qaeda leader, writes with enormous authority in these pages. He gives the reader an intimate understanding of how Al Qaeda operates on a day-to-day basis: he says it’s a highly bureaucratic organization with bylaws dealing with everything from salary levels to furniture allowances to vacation schedules. And he creates a sharply observed portrait of Mr. bin Laden that amplifies those laid out by earlier writers like Lawrence Wright (“The Looming Tower”), Steve Coll (“The Bin Ladens”) and Jonathan Randal (“Osama: The Making of a Terrorist”). Although some of Mr. Bergen’s conclusions are bound to be controversial, the lucidity, knowledge and carefully reasoned logic of his arguments lend his assessments credibility and weight, even when he is challenging conventional wisdom. On the matter of the dangers posed by Pakistan, Mr. Bergen says that a rapidly increasing population combined with high unemployment will play into the hands of militants, but adds that “despite years of hysterical analysis by the commentariat in the United States, as the Obama administration came into office Pakistan was not poised for an Islamist takeover similar to what happened in the shah’s Iran.” “There was no major religious figure around which opposition to the Pakistani government could form,” he writes, “and the alliance of pro-Taliban parties known as the MMA, which had come to power in two of Pakistan’s four provinces in 2002 and had implemented some window-dressing measures such as banning the sale of alcohol to non-Muslims, did nothing to govern effectively and in the election in 2008 they were annihilated in the polls. Ordinary Pakistanis were also increasingly fed up with the tactics used by the militants. Between 2005 and 2008, Pakistani support for suicide attacks dropped from 33 percent to 5 percent.” In these pages Mr. Bergen also disputes parallels drawn between the experiences of America and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan (an argument invoked by the Pentagon under Donald H. Rumsfeld as a reason for keeping the number of United States troops there to a minimum). Mr. Bergen argues that there is no real analogy since “the Soviets employed a scorched-earth policy,” killing “more than a million Afghans and forcing some five million more to flee the country,” while more American troops have been needed — and wanted by the Afghan people — to secure the country from the Taliban and to “midwife a more secure and prosperous country.” Mr. Bergen also contends that “the growing skepticism about Obama’s chances for success in Afghanistan” was “largely based on some deep misreadings of both the country’s history and the views of its people, which were often compounded by facile comparisons to the United States’ misadventures” in Vietnam and Iraq. Skeptics who argue for a reduced American presence in Afghanistan are wrong, he contends, because “the United States had tried this already” twice: first, when it abandoned the country in the wake of the Soviet defeat there, creating a chaotic vacuum in the 1990s from which the Taliban emerged; and second, when the administration of George W. Bush got distracted with the war in Iraq and allowed the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The sections of this book dealing with 9/11, the war in Iraq and the prosecution of the war on terror retrace a lot of ground covered by the important work of other journalists, most notably Thomas Ricks, author of the book “Fiasco”; Bob Woodward of The Washington Post; and Jane Mayer, Seymour M. Hersh and George Packer of The New Yorker.
[Marxism-Thaxis] Yemen protests urge leader's exit
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112314714887766.html Thousands of Yemeni students, activists and opposition groups have held protests at Sanaa University, demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster in what appeared to be the first large-scale challenge to the strongman. Around 2,500 students, activists and opposition groups chanted slogans against the president, comparing him to Tunisia's ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose people were similarly enraged by economic woes and government corruption. Oh, Ali, join your friend Ben Ali, protesters chanted. Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, whose grievances include proposed constitutional changes that would allow the president to rule for a lifetime. Around 30 protesters were detained, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press. Since the Tunisian turmoil, Saleh has ordered income taxes slashed in half and has instructed his government to control prices. He also ordered a heavy deployment of anti-riot police and soldiers to several key areas in the capital and its surroundings to prevent any riots. Peoples' grievances Nearly half of Yemen's population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn't have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding the cities. The government is riddled with corruption, has little control outside the capital, and its main source of income - oil - could run dry in a decade. Protests were also held in the southern port city of Aden, where calls for Saleh to step down were heard along with the more familiar slogans for southern secession. Police fired on demonstrators, injuring four, and detained 22 others in heavy clashes. Musid Ali, executive director of the Yemeni-American anti-terrorism center, told Al Jazeera that protests in Yemen were natural given long years of suffering from dictatorship. It is natural for an uprising to come. This has come after 30 years of rule, people are hungry; there is no development for the people, people are fed up, people are saying Ali Saleh enough is enough. The Yemeni regime is the terror in Yemen, they are using al Qaeda to get more money from the west, he said. While some students protested against Saleh, others affiliated with his General People's Congress demonstrated in his support, with banners calling for him to remain in office, and for parliamentary elections to be held in April. Saleh said in December that parliamentary polls would take place in April with or without opposition parties, some of which have said they are considering boycotting the election. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Obama said on Tunisian rebellion :
And we saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people. (Applause.) http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address?ps=cprs ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Obama said on Tunisian rebellion :
On Jan 26, 2011, at 12:11 PM, c b wrote: And we saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people. (Applause.) http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address?ps=cprs The capitalist supporters of every tyrant always support the revolution that deposed him--the moment after he has fled. Obama is exemplary of this. Now he is still giving full support to Mubarak's stable (meaning the army is still torturing, jailing, and shooting down the people) regime. Hopefully he soon will take about standing with the people of Egypt. Once they have forced him to stop standing on their backs. Shane Mage The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed. Joe Stack (1956-2010) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Obama said on Tunisian rebellion :
On Jan 26, 2011, at 12:11 PM, c b wrote: And we saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people. (Applause.) http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address?ps=cprs The capitalist supporters of every tyrant always support the revolution that deposed him--the moment after he has fled. Obama is exemplary of this. Now he is still giving full support to Mubarak's stable (meaning the army is still torturing, jailing, and shooting down the people) regime. Hopefully he soon will talk about standing with the people of Egypt. Once they have forced him to stop standing on their backs. Shane Mage The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed. Joe Stack (1956-2010) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] “The Longest War,” a new book by Peter L. Bergen,
This analysis sees Al Qaeda coming into growing conflict with other Muslims http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/books/18book.html?pagewanted=2_r=1 So what is Al Qaeda’s future around the world? On one hand, Mr. Bergen writes that “many thousands of underemployed, disaffected men in the Muslim world will continue to embrace bin Laden’s doctrine of violent anti-Westernism” — he cites a 2008 survey showing that people in countries as diverse as Morocco, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey expressed more “confidence” in the Qaeda leader than in President Bush by significant margins. On the other, he says that half a decade after 9/11 there emerged powerful new critics of Al Qaeda who had jihadist credentials themselves: Abdullah Anas, who had been a friend of Mr. bin Laden during the anti-Soviet jihad, denounced the 2005 suicide bombings in London as “criminal acts,” and Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, a leading Saudi religious scholar, personally rebuked Mr. bin Laden for killing innocent children, the elderly and women “in the name of Al Qaeda.” In the end, Mr. Bergen says, Al Qaeda has four “crippling strategic weaknesses” that will affect its long-term future: 1) its killing of many Muslims civilians — acts forbidden by the Koran; 2) its failure to offer any positive vision of the future (“Afghanistan under the Taliban is not an attractive model of the future for most Muslims”); 3) the inability of jihadist militants to turn themselves “into genuine mass political movements because their ideology prevents them from making the kind of real-world compromises that would allow them to engage in normal politics”; and 4) an ever growing list of enemies, including any Muslims who don’t “exactly share their ultra-fundamentalist worldview.” “By the end of the second Bush term,” Mr. Bergen writes near the end of this valuable book, “it was clear that Al Qaeda and allied groups were losing the ‘war of ideas’ in the Islamic world, not because America was winning that war — quite the contrary: most Muslims had a quite negative attitude toward the United States — but because Muslims themselves had largely turned against the ideology of bin Ladenism.” ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental difference : Thoreau's Robinsonade
Henry David Thoreau' Individualist Anarchism is revealed demonstratively in his famous Robinsonade adventure in _Walden Pond_. Thoreau is left politically in many practices, but his theory is shown to be at least partly in the great bourgeois individualist tradition by that book and activity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau Civil Disobedience and the Walden years: 1845–1849 Henry David Thoreau Thoreau in June 1856 (aged 39) Appletons' Thoreau Henry David signature.jpg Core works and topics[show] Civil Disobedience Herald of Freedom The Last Days of John Brown Life Without Principle Paradise (to be) Regained A Plea for Captain John Brown Reform and the Reformers Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown The Service Sir Walter Raleigh Slavery in Massachusetts Thomas Carlyle and His Works Walden A Walk to Wachusett A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau Thoreau Society Related topics[show] Abolitionism · Anarchism Anarchism in the United States Civil disobedience Concord, Massachusetts Conscientious objection Direct action · Ecology Environmentalism History of tax resistance Individualist anarchism John Brown · Lyceum movement Nonviolent resistance Ralph Waldo Emerson Simple living · Tax resistance Tax resisters · Transcendentalism The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail Walden Pond v · d · e “ I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. ” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For [28] Thoreau needed to concentrate and get himself working more on his writing. In March 1845, Ellery Channing told Thoreau, Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you.[29] Two months later, Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living on July 4, 1845, when he moved to a small, self-built house on land owned by Emerson in a second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond. The house was in a pretty pasture and woodlot of 14 acres (57,000 m2) that Emerson had bought,[30] 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from his family home.[31] On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local tax collector, Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery, and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. (The next day Thoreau was freed, against his wishes, when his aunt paid his taxes.[32]) The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government[33] explaining his tax resistance at the Concord Lyceum. Bronson Alcott attended the lecture, writing in his journal on January 26: Heard Thoreau's lecture before the Lyceum on the relation of the individual to the State– an admirable statement of the rights of the individual to self-government, and an attentive audience. His allusions to the Mexican War, to Mr. Hoar's expulsion from Carolina, his own imprisonment in Concord Jail for refusal to pay his tax, Mr. Hoar's payment of mine when taken to prison for a similar refusal, were all pertinent, well considered, and reasoned. I took great pleasure in this deed of Thoreau's. —Bronson Alcott, Journals (1938)[34] Thoreau revised the lecture into an essay entitled Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience). In May 1849 it was published by Elizabeth Peabody in the Aesthetic Papers. Thoreau had taken up a version of Percy Shelley's principle in the political poem The Mask of Anarchy (1819), that Shelley begins with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time – and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action.[35] At Walden Pond, he completed a first draft of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, an elegy to his brother, John, that described their 1839 trip to the White Mountains. Thoreau did not find a publisher for this book and instead printed 1,000 copies at his own expense, though fewer than 300 were sold.[23]:234 Thoreau self-published on the
[Marxism-Thaxis] Nonfiction: Nabokov Theory on Butterfly Evolution Is Vindicated
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/science/01butterfly.html?hp ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental Difference: Geniuses
http://www.moyak.com/papers/adorno-schoenberg-atonality.html Theodor Adorno's Theory of Music and its Social Implications by Moya K. Mason Art is mind, and mind does not at all need to feel itself obligated to the community, to society, it may not, in my view, for the sake of its freedom, its nobility. ^^^ CB: Mind here is individual mind. There couldn't be a clearer statement of the Individualist conception. ^ An art that goes in unto the folk, which makes her own the needs of the crowd, of the little man, of small minds, arrives at wretchedness, and to make it her duty is the worst small -- mindedness, and the murder of mind and spirit. And it is my conviction that mind, in its most audacious, unrestrained advance and researches, can, however unsuited to the masses, be certain in some indirect way to serve man in the long run. Excerpt from Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus http://www.moyak.com/papers/adorno-schoenberg-atonality.html During the 1930s Adorno considered Arnold Schoenberg the most progressive person in modern music.(13) He was a musical genius who received only a few months of training from Alexander von Zemlinsky. His early songs provoked hostile criticisms and he found solace in his painting, revealing strong expressionist tendencies. He taught at the prestigious Sterns Conservatory in Berlin, and later, conducted in important cities across Europe before entering military service in World War I. During the early 1920s he lived and taught in Vienna, leaving the city to teach a master class at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. When he was fired by the Nazis in 1933, Schoenberg went to Paris and converted back to his childhood religion of Judaism. Soon after, he relocated to the United States, where he lived out the rest of his life.(14) Schoenberg composed for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, stage, voice, and keyboard. Alongside his musical interests and passion for painting was a proficiency for writing, with many articles, books, and essays, to his credit. One of his many maxims, which seems autobiographical was: genius learns only from itself, talent chiefly from others. CB: Another genius, Newton had it better. He knew he stood on the shoulders of giants. ^ (15) Schoenberg's music developed through four major transformations. The first was typified by a postromanticism and was influenced by Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner, as was Alban Berg's early music. His second period was considerably more abstract and reflected an innovative spirit. His atonal-expressionism began with Das Buch der hangenden Garten in 1908, and employed an increased absence of tonality and a tendency towards dissonance over the typical consonance. He eliminated symmetry and disregarded formal sequences in his music, destroying the traditional bonds of coherence and unity in compositions. These manifestations were considered quite revolutionary and were abhorred by the general population of the day.(16) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental Difference
http://www.moyak.com/papers/adorno-schoenberg-atonality.html Adorno's own work was influenced by Schoenberg's atonality, but in much more than his musical compositions. In Origins of Negative Dialetics, Susan Buck-Morss observes that: Schoenberg's revolution in music provided the inspiration for Adorno's own efforts in philosophy, the model for his major work on Husserl during the 1930s. For just as Schoenberg had overthrown tonality, the decaying form of bourgeois music, so Adorno's Husserl study attempted to overthrow idealism, the decaying form of bourgeois philosophy.(1 ^ CB: He. Feuerbach, Marx and Engels had already done that almost a hundred years earlier. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] What is human knowledge?
Hi Human knowledge is founded on instinctive belief. It is this common sense belief that leads us to believe in an independent external world. This belief creates no difficulty for us. Neither have we any good reason to reject it since it simplifies and systematizes our experiences. Every principle of simplicity indicates that there are objects other than ourselves and our sense-data. They don’t depend on our continued perception of them. We start with what we can be certain of --our immediate experiences. We may doubt the table’s physical experience but not the sense-data that lead us to think there is one. There are grounds for thinking that these do indicate the existence of physical objects. We have no reason for accepting that life is a dream. This is because life as dream is more complicated than the common-sense one of external objects as source of our sensations. Intuitive knowledge is the basis of our knowledge of truths. Intuitive knowledge are beliefs for which we cannot give reasons. They are blindingly evident general principles such as the inductive principle and general logical principles. We know them instinctively or intuitively. These primitive intuitions are a product of the evolution through natural selection of the Stone Age human brain. The genetic make-up of the human brain hardwires this bundle of intuitions in us There are two forms of knowledge. Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Knowledge by acquaintance involves our direct awareness of things while knowledge by description is a derivative form of knowledge based in instinct. It concerns truths about things. We are acquainted with sense-data and memory. Sense-data is that which is given by the senses such as colours and sounds. There is also acquaintance through introspection. For example we are not directly acquainted with the table as a physical object. However our knowledge of it as a physical object is connected to our acquaintance with the sense-data that makes up its appearance. On the basis of our acquaintance with these we can formulate a description of the table or other objects which applies to only one object. Description makes it possible to go beyond private experience giving us knowledge of things we have not experienced. It also creates and develops a community of knowledge. Our acquaintance with sense-data enables us to infer the existence of physical objects and the external world. This is how we transcend our own private experience while establishing communal relations. To draw the relevant inferences there must exist general laws and principles. We rely on the principle of induction for predicting future events. The inductive principle enables us to extend our knowledge beyond the extremely limited sphere of our private experiences. General scientific principles depend on the inductive principle. Logical principles such as the Laws of Thought have to be accepted for any argument or proof to be possible. Again this constitutes one of the epistemic conditions for transcending private experience and establishing community. Since knowledge is a priori it can be known independently of experience. Mathematical and logical principles are examples of it. Experience cannot prove that mathematical and logical principles are true. Yet it is experience that elicits a priori knowledge through particular experiences. Through experience we become aware of these general principles. All applications of a priori general propositions involve an empirical element. Human knowledge is a combination of the empirical and the a priori. It is this combination that creates the conditions for communal knowledge that transcends private knowledge. In my view much of mainstream Marxism tends to ignore this combination and over-emphasise the experiential aspect of knowledge lending itself to some form of crude empiricism. Much of the above was inspired by the analytical philosopher, Bertrand Russell. Much of his philosophy has been of enormous significance. Even to this day much of his philosophy is still underestimated. It was eclipsed, in varying degrees, by younger philosophers and by some of his peers such as Wittgenstein and probably Carnap. And In Ireland mainstream Marxism is more influenced by continental philosophy than it is by analytical philosophy. Given that without modern symbolic logic, a product of analytical philosophy, there would have been no large scale computer technology in existence today we see its significance. The same cannot be said for the non-analytical philosophy continental philosophy. Paddy Hackett http://paddy-hackett.blogspot.com/search/label/Philosophy ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental Difference: Libertarian Delusions of Individual Grandeur
Michelle Bachmann's intelligence isn't the issue. Like Palin and W, she wants to appear less educated, because that enhances her brand with a she's just one of us vitality. None of these people are stupid. You can't get where they are if you're stupid. Ad hominem attacks result from laziness. Zero in on the issues. When we attack the personalities we are allowing the Republicans to choose the ground we fight on. CB:I very much agree with this. The simulated regular person act pandering to American anti-intellectualism is vintage Reagan. None of them are stupid. They are frauds and demagoges ( i can never spell that). They are big time liars. A main characteristic of the Tea Party is its mendacity. Charles Brown @Richard these people were born a third base and think they hit a home run all this .. This points to a central Tea Party Lie. Most Tea Partiers are middle to upper income. They are the types who declare the USA the greatest country in the history of the world AND they are among the main material beneficiaries of this American Greatness they announce. So, what a fraud for them to be attacking the US government which has done more for them than the vast majority of the People. It's such an obvious fraud. They are Spoiled , Whining Brats. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated Charles Brown ...the US government which has done more for them than the vast majority of the People, but of course, they have and purvey the self-serving delusion that they are these Great Individuals who accomplished their greater prosperity all on their own, by themSelves, independently of society, government and others - NOT ! They have the bourgeois libertarian delusions of grandeur. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] What is human knowledge?
On Jan 26, 2011, at 4:26 PM, Paddy Hackett wrote: Human knowledge is founded on instinctive belief. It is this common sense belief that leads us to believe in an independent external world. What nonsense! Knowledge and belief are, and have been well recognized since before Plato to be, entirely different concepts. Knowledge *cannot* be wrong. If I claim to know something, and that something turns out not to be the case, I have to say (like the boy in the *Meno*) I was wrong, I really didn't know. But belief can always be wrong, and if my belief about something turns out not to be the case I have to say I was wrong but I can *never* truthfully say I really didn't believe. Likewise nonsensical is instinctive belief in an independent external world. I *know* from before birth (and without any common sense, because my senses have yet to develop anything in common with the senses of others) my own internal world--my body--and I know my independent external world--my mother's body--because I am organically interconnected with it until my expulsion into an alien external world in which the whole aim and purpose of my existence is to restore that lost connection. Shane Mage When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly. When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true. (N. Weiner) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
