Date: Thu, 22 Nov. 1997 20:14:07 -0400
From: khalid.ali@utoronto.ca
X-Sender: khalid.ali@log3
To: John Tennyson Lee Franz <lee@faces.ula.ve>
Subject: From the lens
of the grassroots observer.
Hello Franz,
Thanks for your letter, also for the explanations of George Orwell's
"1984", as usual, your comments were "good food" for thought. Everything
is almost in a mess but it would seem that no one is alert to the present
changes which we are experiencing, i.e., the changes towards barbarism.
How can one explain this lacklustre interest? It would seem that
the people are so duped or exploited that they cannot think anymore for
themselves. Or they just don't care about anything. I have heard some "ordinary"
folks commenting that they
don't care anything about politics, all they desire is to live and
provide for their family.
This attitude explains to me that more than half of our civilization are no different from animals because basically they only think when its time to provide the basic necessities for survival, e.g. hunger, shelter, etc., beyond that they don't know or care. I think essentially this is the phase of development that capitalism wants to create in every society. Essentially, only through ignorance can they rule unchallenged.
In the so-called developed societies, like here in North America,
the ruling class are busy affirming the goodies of the system. But
in
the process they engage in a guerrilla campaign to divert the minds
of the people from the real problems that they are facing. They get them
to occupy their minds on trivial things, e.g. on Miss Universes (Venezuela),
on the celebrities (on what they do, who they live or sleep with).
They also heavily promote individual triumph, they attribute their successes to hard work, heroism and bravery. The so-called "triumphants" also affirm their success by explaining how difficult it was for them to rise to the top. They, too, join in the foray by engaging the people with emotions and interests into their private sphere of life. Its an entire layer of deceit carefully crafted with precision to deceive and to create false hopes and divert people's minds from the important issues of daily life. Indeed they have learnt all these trickery from the various world religions. It is this practice that will make "God" feel proud, because at last some one else has caught on on how to lie and deceive.
For other historic reasons, North Americans are so alienated from reality, they have become "converted" (in the Christian sense of the word) to the ideas, beliefs and ideology of the ruling economic class (although it is all the same thing). They form a new breed of "believers", of a different reality, of a different kind, not the "believers" of God, of Christianity.
This condition has given rise to Christian Fundamentalists who now
fear that their monopoly on "belief" is not only being challenged, but
that it is also being used in a different way, i.e., to win obedience and
loyalty. The latter affirms aspects of the
system which they don't like, because their very "Christian" power
base is being challenged.
When I spoke of the Trade Unions and Social Democrats I meant
that they serve as the scapegoats of some members of the "romantic"
left, who blame them for not having yet made "the revolution." My argument
is, that the trade unions/social democrats will always be what they are,
i.e., precisely trade
unions and social democrats, precisely because the people and workers
want them to be what they are and nothing else. This adds strength to your
thesis of the links of the proletarians and the "bourgeoises", it is a
nice sado-masochistic marriage, a marriage of convenience. (I hope I make
some sense).
Anyway, my fat boy, (snore away, smile) it was not my intention to
engage you in this mediocre analysis. It is just the way I see things from
the lens of a grass root observer. At least one great thing about you ever
since I first met you some 18 or 20 years ago, is that you have always
tolerated and listened to me, from a boy to a grown up man. Never mind,
how stupid I maybe at times, you never said shut up.
Goodnight and Love.
Khalid
Date: Wed, 28 Nov. 1997 21:00:42 -0400
From: khalid.ali@utoronto.ca
X-Sender: khalid.ali@log3
To: John Tennyson Lee Franz <lee@faces.ula.ve>
Subject: Goodies and
Nighties!!!
Hey, Guy! Franz,
Thanks very much for your "Withering Away Of The State" lecture. Briefly, a comment on the United Nations State. Something bigger is developing right now; it is under the auspices of the OECDS/G7 Group of Nations - according to news leaked to the press, "very secretive" talks are now being held to accommodate a new multinational trade and investment trade agreement which will literally strip the State (bare naked) of any of its previous regulatory functions.
NAFTA and the EC were just a drop in the bucket of plans; now they are developing something (greater than what is now known as free trade), it will be much wider and will encompass all nations. New rules and regulations will supersede that of GATT and the World Trade Organization. This is the very essence of what you just wrote of, but more dangerously these talks are secretive and are held behind closed doors.
I look foward reading more on what you have to say, especially on
Theory and Praxis. I really want to focus my energies on mastering
our methodology. Sorry I have to be short today. Thanks very much for your
valuable comments. Will speak to you tomorrow.
Greetings and love to you all.
Khalid.