Search LBO-Talk Archives

35596 What *object* or *entity* does psychology study? -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >In a communist society, if human beings ever achieve it, historical >materialism is not likely to be an indispensable tool, and thus it can >imagine its own future irrelevance and hopes to achieve it (and that is why >Marx & Engels refrained from speaking in detail about what communism will >be like, except in a negative manner, "limited for the most part to what >will disappear"). Wow, this sounds almost religious - a Paradise on earth, a ...

Document Size:	5610
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 10 06:58:01 PST 2000

35597 CIA, BP, Soros, & Russian oil -- rank: 1000

[from Johnson's Russia List] Washington Post - January 9, 2000 The Strange Case of Russia, Big Oil and the CIA By David Ignatius The Export-Import Bank's decisions normally attract about as much attention as meetings of the Federal Maritime Commission. But the peculiar chain of events surrounding the Ex-Im Bank's deliberations last month on a $500 million loan guarantee for a Russian oil company has created a buzz in Washington. It's a complicated story of lobbying and bureaucratic infighting, b ...

Document Size:	10843
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 10 06:38:27 PST 2000

35598 Ecuador -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >So anyone have independent insight or news on the crisis in Ecuador? With >Chavez's rise in Venezuala, the strong showing of the left candidate >in Uraguay, >and now these mass demonstrations, there does seem to be a real revival of >populist and labor oppositions in Latin America. > >But there has been remarkably little written or said about these >events in left >publications or these lists, so I hope to hear anyone with info. I did a segment o ...

Document Size:	5164
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 18:28:42 PST 2000

35599 Zizek on Christianity -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >Zizek should have no reason to be concerned about whether or not I like his >work. He is well known and probably well remunerated (as academics go), >whereas my criticisms of his work are only available from LBO-talk. No >practical threat to his reputation. Probably not, but he seemed genuinely curious. He asked with force (though he says pretty much everything with force), and repeated the question twice. I don't see an answer in your quotes from Sartre, o ...

Document Size:	5072
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 17:40:02 PST 2000

35600 What *object* or *entity* does psychology study? -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >One can reduce depression *in the abstract* to chemical activity in >the brain. But in every person that chemical activity is a constituent >in a unique history (an ensemble of social relations), which is so >extraordinarily complex that neither now nor in the future can >one elaborate a "science" that will apply to particular people. One >can have a theory of neuroscience and one can have a theory of >social relations. One cannot have a theory o ...

Document Size:	5603
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 17:35:56 PST 2000

35601 Giuliani makes fun of a guy with Parkinson's disease -- rank: 1000

Giuliani Mocks The Handicapped By Robert Lederman On Friday, January 7, 2000 Mayor Giuliani held a brief conversation on his weekly WABC radio call-in show with Queens resident, disabled father of two and advocate for the handicapped, John Hynes. Mr. Hynes is sometimes wheelchair bound, suffers from Parkinson's disease and recently had his food stamps cut off without explanation. The Mayor mocked Mr. Hynes' considerable breathing difficulties, claimed that he needed serious psychological help an ...

Document Size:	5905
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 16:32:17 PST 2000

35602 Theory of Psychology -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >What is a theory of psychology a theory *of*? > >Off hand, I can't see any reason for having one. So why are you clinically depressive? Even if you give a biologically based answer, you've got a theory of psychology. Doug

Document Size:	4615
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 15:26:02 PST 2000

35603 Zizek on Christianity -- rank: 1000

A PS to my PS: German TV did a segment on Zizek's Christianity book. They called the Bishop of Ljubljana to get permission to film him exiting the cathedral and walking down the stairs. The bishop's office said ok at first, but then asked who the person to be filmed was. On hearing the answer, the church people said "No!" and hung up the phone. Doug

Document Size:	4685
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 12:53:33 PST 2000

35604 Russian incomes -15% -- rank: 1000

[From Johnson's Russia List. This keeps up, incomes will be 0 in a few years.] Russian Citizens' Income down 15 Percent in 1999 MOSCOW (Jan. 9) XINHUA - The 1999 year witnessed Russians' real income dropping 15 percent from 1998, said the Russian Economy Ministry Sunday. Preliminary reports said that the nominal designated average monthly wage received by workers of state-run and small enterprises amounted to 1,565 rubles (57 U.S. dollars) in December 1999, which was 49 percent more than that in ...

Document Size:	5182
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 12:20:11 PST 2000

35605 Zizek on Christianity -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >I didn't grow up with any religion, so neither fate nor rebirth resonates >with me. I have never been a right-winger in my life, unlike you and Lou, >so the idea of being "born again" doesn't have a personal meaning for me >either. Oh yes, Slavoj's talking about the idea of social transformation, not just personal. After I told him of your comments about obscurantism, I mentioned that you're hostile to psychoanalysis. He asked what your theory of p ...

Document Size:	5020
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 12:05:08 PST 2000

35606 Zizek on Christianity -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >I didn't grow up with any religion, so neither fate nor rebirth resonates >with me. I have never been a right-winger in my life, unlike you and Lou, >so the idea of being "born again" doesn't have a personal meaning for me >either. I met R. Emmett Tyrell of the American Spectator at a party once, and introduced myself as a former member of the Yale Party of the Right. I explained my ideological evolution to him, and his reaction was, "Really? ...

Document Size:	4968
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 11:57:47 PST 2000

35607 Religion -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >Zizek is merely wasting ink. Remarkable conclusion for a book you know mainly from catalogue copy and my report of a personal conversation. But I know I'm given too much to questions, and not enough to answers. Doug

Document Size:	4610
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 11:44:49 PST 2000

35608 Revolution Number 9/ "Noise" Bands -- rank: 1000

Catherine Driscoll wrote: >what's the title of the laiback video w. zizek? Laibach: A Film from Slovenia. Amazon.com has it for $17, but only in U.S. video format. Doug

Document Size:	4705
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 9 11:38:28 PST 2000

35609 Buchanan: patriotism vs. globalism -- rank: 1000

[Ralph's proposal to begin shareholder meetings with recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance is, oh, odd.] <http://www.buchanan.org/ps-00-0106-worldgovernment.html> The Millennium Conflict: America First or World Government by Patrick J. Buchanan Boston World Affairs Council Boston, Massachusetts January 6, 2000 Five years ago, historian Christopher Lasch published The Revolt of the Elites. It was a book about how our national elite was literally seceding from America. Pointing up the huge ...

Document Size:	20462
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 8 13:57:12 PST 2000

35610 Zizek on Christianity -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >Zizek apparently thinks that he can fight obscurantism with more >obscurantism.... Just so happened that I met up with Zizek, and had a chance to ask him about the book. He vigorously denied that it's an apology for obscurantism. He characterizes it as his "most Leninist book yet." What he finds valuable in Christianity is its break from other religions - those that emphasize fate, one's rightful position in a great hierarchical chain - and its emphasis o ...

Document Size:	5044
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 8 12:59:43 PST 2000