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976 [lbo-talk] an Iranian socialist writes -- rank: 1000

Mike writes: "the ideological line being critiqued here very closely resembles the old Communist Party edict which, in so many words, stated that any left criticism of the Soviet Union was OBJECTIVELY counter revolutionary. So, best keep your mouth shut for the sake of unity, comrades." But I don't think that is what Yoshie, or I, are saying in defending Iranian sovereignty. I think we are saying, as Lenin did, the main enemy is at home. It does not mean that criticism of those states ...

Document Size:	6429
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 30 10:53:30 PDT 2007

977 [lbo-talk] Bjorn Lomborg unreasonably traduced -- rank: 1000

John Thornton wrote: "Apparently they are not aware of the substantial errors in his work." I think we have already seen from Gar's swift turnaround that these so-called errors are nothing more than political differences of opinion masquerading as 'last-word' scientific judgements (and of course, in science, there are no last words).

Document Size:	4956
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Sep 29 16:17:13 PDT 2007

978 [lbo-talk] An Iranian socialist writes -- rank: 1000

"If you want to defend the people of Iran (which is what we have been doing), do so based on principles and not based on some realpolitik knee-jerk, bankrupt Cold War mentality that ends you up in bed with reactionaries." Yes, but reading this conjures up the through-the-looking-glass-world-problem that Lenin wrote about in 'Nascent Trends of Imperialist Economism' (here I go to 'Pseud's Corner'). The Iranian socialist might be right about policy in Iran, but in (the UK as in) the US, ...

Document Size:	5848
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Sep 29 16:11:50 PDT 2007

979 [lbo-talk] The Sexual Clash of Civilisations -- rank: 1000

"I know you're trying to get your boy off the hook for saying something so transparently ludicrous, but if even a minority of Iranians have adopted the "Western" identity, then Ahmadinejad's statement is factually wrong. There *are* Western-style homos in his country, whether he likes it or not." Yes, but I bet it sounds a lot less ludicrous in Teheran than it does in New York. I could almost say that I am looking forward to seeing the US Marines ('don't ask, don't tell') goi ...

Document Size:	5548
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 25 09:50:35 PDT 2007

980 [lbo-talk] Clash of Sexual Civilizations (was Re: Ahmadinejad) -- rank: 1000

At the risk of making a perverse argument, I think that Ahmadinejad would be right if he said that the law should recognise acts, not orientations. It would be better if the law did not differentiate between different types of person, but rather forbade acts (like murder). I tend to think, like Doug, that Yoshie's brief sketch outline of the personal rights and freedoms concerning sexuality is essentially an elaboration, or idealisation derived from western societies (confirming Marx's view that ...

Document Size:	5983
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 25 09:05:06 PDT 2007

981 [lbo-talk] Clash of Sexual Civilizations (was Re: ahmadinejad) -- rank: 1000

Yoshie writes "But a majority of Iranians, apparently including their President, have not adopted the idea of sexual orientations, nor have much of the rest of the Third World." But Ahmadinejad's government seems sufficiently aware of the existence of Iranian homosexuals to pass stringent laws against them. Perhaps Michel Foucault (who after all was in on the making of the Islamic Republic of Iran) could explain to us the dynamic between repression and identity formation. If you are sa ...

Document Size:	5754
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 25 06:34:33 PDT 2007

982 [lbo-talk] Post-Marxist Era -- rank: 1000

andie wrote, apropos of Rakesh's challenges on Marx's critique of political economy "You are mistaking me for someone who is interested in this question." Which is ok, but isn't that because andie wrote previously of "the validity of the propositions of historical materialism or of Marxian critiques of capitalism as sociological economic-political-moral theory. The theory is pretty much as true as ever."

Document Size:	5023
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Sep 24 02:59:38 PDT 2007

983 [lbo-talk] post-Marxism -- rank: 1000

"The era of large movements, parties, currents in movements, much less states that identify themselves as Marxist ... is largely over. " Yes that is true, but are we not also moving towards a post-political age, where 'movements, parties' and yes even states are less weighty than once they were. This much, though cannot be true: "this fact does not undermine the validity of the propositions of historical materialism or of Marxian critiques of capitalism as sociological economic-po ...

Document Size:	5850
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Sep 22 23:57:34 PDT 2007

984 [lbo-talk] The imperialist, warmongering, hate-filled Guardian newspaper -- rank: 1000

Courtney Hamilton posts this splenetic assault on the Guardian newspaper (by Murray McDonald) on his Neo-Jacobin blog: "There have been 50 000 issues of what was then called the Manchester Guardian published since John Taylor founded it in 1821. Commemorating that anniversary current editor Alan Rusbridger has been talking about the paper's radical record, since it first championed the victims of the Peterloo Massacre. What the Guardian forgot to say was that Taylor launched his paper to un ...

Document Size:	8469
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Sep 22 07:31:52 PDT 2007

985 [lbo-talk] Marx, Keynes and the Koran -- rank: 1000

Ted: "I think this misinterprets "My Early Beliefs."" Sontag: 'All interpretation is misinterpretation

Document Size:	4754
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 19 09:22:19 PDT 2007

986 [lbo-talk] Marx, Keynes and the Koran -- rank: 1000

Doug "Just noticed this from my Keynes notes. Keynes, CW 28, p. 38: Marx's Capital is "dreary, out-of-date, academic controversializing," like the Koran." In 'My Early Beliefs' he lectures a younger generation of (Marx-influenced) Cambridge students on his own debt to the founder of English analytical philosophy G.E. Moore. Moore, unread today, was part of a reaction against the Hegelian social philosophy of T.H. Green, Edward Caird and MacTaggart that identified the forward ...

Document Size:	7180
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 19 02:51:34 PDT 2007

987 [lbo-talk] Anita Roddick Prophet of Green Capitalism -- rank: 1000

Anita Roddick: prophet of Green Capitalism The founder of The Body Shop has died - but not before helping to move exhausted industrial capitalism towards a new life as 'capitalism without growth', writes James Heartfield. 'Mostly, I tell stories', Anita Roddick once said. 'I just sell some stuff on the side to make some money.' Roddick opened the first of a chain of cosmetic and toiletry outlets, The Body Shop, in Brighton in 1976. Last year, she and her husband Gordon sold the global chain of 1 ...

Document Size:	6337
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 11 08:32:47 PDT 2007

988 [lbo-talk] why the US imprisons so many -- rank: 1000

I tend to agree with WD that it is the theory that prison = warehousing the surplus population is insufficient, but not with this argument against it: "The problem I have with this theory is that it fails to explain how African Americans' labor suddenly changed from extremely desirable to extremely undesirable to white capitalists. A few laws get passed giving a little bite to African Americans' formal equality and all the sudden no one wants to hire black people? That sounds unlikely to ...

Document Size:	6152
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 9 15:51:11 PDT 2007

989 [lbo-talk] What are you reading now? -- rank: 1000

Stephen Ambrose, Rise to Globalism (one of those things I should have got round to a long time ago)

Document Size:	4652
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 9 10:19:27 PDT 2007

990 [lbo-talk] Mirror Neurons -- rank: 1000

> "You call it rain > but the human name > doesn't mean shit to a tree." > - Jefferson Airplane or, as I quoted before (sorry for being repetitious) I know I comprehend Nature on the outside; And I don't comprehend Nature on the inside Because Nature doesn't have an inside; If she did she wouldn't be Nature. "Alberto Caeiro da Silva" http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20070326/006366.html

Document Size:	5037
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 6 11:02:21 PDT 2007