tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post3505310447439762022..comments2023-09-25T04:26:51.568-06:00Comments on The Barefoot Bum: Revolution and ReformLarry Hamelinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-22132519306679890142008-12-31T08:14:00.000-07:002008-12-31T08:14:00.000-07:00Chuck: I'm more or less in agreement with you. See...Chuck: I'm more or less in agreement with you. See my latest essay, <A HREF="http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2008/12/revolutionary-conditions.html" REL="nofollow">Revolutionary Conditions</A>, for a more detailed explanation.<BR/><BR/>It's important that revolutionaries such as myself absolutely abjure violence to <I>create</I> revolutionary conditions. On the other hand, it's important that revolutionaries not uncomplainingly accept the limitations and contradictions of our bourgeois <I>faux</I> "democracy".Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-17192760488559727902008-12-31T00:21:00.000-07:002008-12-31T00:21:00.000-07:00In from Swift. Much of what you write is true, an...In from Swift. Much of what you write is true, and yet fatally flawed in perspective. Democrats will count votes and they will go where that counting leads them in legislation. That is the system that exists and I push and shove in it to go my lefty way and expect to be at it for a lifetime and come up short. I won't get my way until enough Americans elect enough lefties.<BR/><BR/>I do that because I am armed to the teeth and prefer ballots to bullets. I have the ability, the capability, and the tools to do either, I vastly prefer quieter methods. So, if I'm wasting my time, do you want to pick the targets?Chuck Butcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13656874242638324636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-37491576146697607932008-12-25T16:42:00.000-07:002008-12-25T16:42:00.000-07:00Happy Squidmas everyone!<A HREF="http://normdoering.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-christmas-gift.html" REL="nofollow">Happy Squidmas everyone!</A>normdoeringhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03279378756658563565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-17473025587967166552008-12-23T15:26:00.000-07:002008-12-23T15:26:00.000-07:00Here we are up against the no win wall. Evolutiona...Here we are up against the no win wall. Evolutionary change is co-opted by the blue flavor and then emasculated by the red flavor. Revolutionary change is crushed by both flavors. Why go on? Do we need a complete destruction of the post industrial US society for a new more progressive entity to rise from its ashes? The disruption of most everyone's lives would be a steep price to payAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-65673751644287264202008-12-22T18:00:00.000-07:002008-12-22T18:00:00.000-07:00FDR was not a palliative: He actually made real st...FDR was not a palliative: He actually made real structural reforms to the political-economic system, and his efforts led to substantial improvements: he made capitalism about as good as it can possibly be. Still imperialistic, still exploitative, but he made real improvements.<BR/><BR/>But conditions are far worse today than they were in the 1930s. There was still room for growth, and there was still room in the capitalist system for the labor of ordinary people to be valuable. A Keynesian stimuluous was just what's needed.<BR/><BR/>I think conditions are not just worse today, but qualitatively different. I'm going to write more on this topic soon.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-6917660995459962622008-12-22T17:45:00.000-07:002008-12-22T17:45:00.000-07:00All of what you just said about Obama was also tru...All of what you just said about Obama was also true of FDR. That is how the American system works. When the process of extracting wealth from the workers reduces their level of living to unsustainable levels, such that revolution is even the slightest possibility, the system will throw up an FDR or Obama as a palliative to prevent revolution. It was not a *mistake* that Obama won the election, any more than it was a *mistake* that FDR won the election of 1934. Not all of our ruling elites are stupid. Many of them are, but not all. And the ones who are NOT stupid saw the possibilities being dire if McCain was President and managed to finish the job of George W. Hoover's destruction of the middle class. <BR/><BR/>Regarding the notion that the narcotized, apathetic American public could be roused to revolution by anything other than absolute national disaster to the point where a quarter of the population is unemployed and homeless... not likely. And our rulers know that. Sorry, but people dreaming of revolution are just that -- dreaming. In the end, if there is going to be any change, it will have to be <I>evolutionary</I>, not <I>revolutionary</I>, because we simply don't have a population made of revolutionaries anymore, the last such batch got put down *hard* in 1865. <BR/><BR/>- Badtux the History PenguinBadTuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01345749557330760251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-79220793363981490372008-12-21T23:41:00.000-07:002008-12-21T23:41:00.000-07:00EXACTLY. I want to say more on the subject, but th...EXACTLY. <BR/><BR/>I want to say more on the subject, but that pretty much sums it up. The political machine is running itself now. The American corporate party with it's two flavors of red and blue have managed to crush or purchase or co-opt any meaningful dissent.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-73743431760072752242008-12-20T19:19:00.000-07:002008-12-20T19:19:00.000-07:00Dude, maybe *this* is your best, most provocative ...Dude, maybe *this* is your best, most provocative post of the year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com