[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> stiglitz is not the second digest [geer, hart]

["ben moretti" <bmoretti@chariot.net.au>]

Hi Ben

You wrote:

>It would be a pity if the European political avant-garde fragmented without

>leaving any useful impression on the majority of people.

I have been thinking about this very issue, namely the "action" vs "talk" camps.


Naively I believe that the progressives in countries with much to struggle against,
Brazil etc, are more easily able to achieve constructive things. For example
setting up a food or housing co-op, printing presses, etc. These things are
very directly helpful to the people and can be done in a fairly straightforward
way. 

The progressives in Western countries, who have a much easier life, seem to
have larger things to struggle against at the immediate level - such as control
of the media, banks, etc. I guess this is because their lives are generally
better off than those in Brazil, say, and so they move the object of their objection
to "higher" or state-corporate based institutions. That does however mean they
get more frustrated as they are unable to achieve effective change against these
things, and do not generally do very much that is constructive (this does not
apply to everyone). Sorry, this is a bit of a ramble. 

Anyway, I think if the progressives in the West stopped talking so much about
"stuff" and did some simple things, such as teaching computers to refugees or
working at a women's shelter, then they would feel like they had more integration,
as you say, with their theoretical chit chat. By their works shall they be known
and all that.

Sorry again about the ramble.

Cheers

Ben

-- 
ben moretti 
mailto:bmoretti@chariot.net.au
http://www.chariot.net.au/~bmoretti

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