tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154337462024-03-23T14:27:13.042-04:00Ruptured RhapsodyA different <b>kind</b> of "blog," consisting of selections from my scribblings over many years. The date of each post is the date I originally wrote that piece. So, <b>the top post is usually not the latest post</b>, because I continually add writings from different years to the blog. <b>If you have visited here before, you are likely to find new posts anywhere on the page.</b> I'll continue to add "new" posts as my time allows.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-37043101494498948922008-07-13T16:47:00.010-04:002011-11-29T16:54:22.676-05:00To expect nature to adapt to our destructive ways is to say that whatever does not conform to the needs of the current socioeconomic system is unnatural and should be allowed to die a quiet death. It is to conflate social Darwinism and biological Darwinism. It is to prescribe the sacrifice of the 4,000,000,000 years of evolution to the 200 years of industrial capitalism. Nature will always be with us, whether we deign to call ourselves a part of it or not. The same cannot be said about capitalism and the urge to maximize profit at all cost. Staggering power and profit for the very few, along with powerlessness and degradation for the many and for the environment, are fairly new phenomena. The powerlessness that is implied in succumbing to the needs of profit making is in fact the powerlessness caused by capitalist relations between capital owners and those who work for them. That state is neither natural nor eternal.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-66489203385138870592008-07-01T16:57:00.004-04:002011-11-29T16:59:26.387-05:00Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the so-called neo-cons are not aberrations. They are expressions of the essential character of the American imperial project that has been going on for over two hundred years. That project began with the genocide of the native population of the continent. Once all the land to the Pacific Ocean had been taken from the natives and Mexico through massacre and war, the imperial project expanded to other countries and continents. It has been based on the unquestioned assumption that whatever is done in the name of the United States is the essence of righteousness. And, what is more, the project will continue, no matter who occupies the White House.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-24011775812132723962006-01-15T12:34:00.000-05:002014-11-25T12:35:40.084-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
am back from Cuba, more sad than wise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sad, because I saw firsthand how the Cuban Revolution’s wondrous
experiment in human emancipation is being crushed by capitalism and the
Empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A little wiser too, because I
now realize that we, the so-called progressives, cannot begin to understand
human emancipation until we try to rid ourselves of our deeply-ingrained class
prejudices.</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-80152282417560240262000-07-15T12:20:00.000-04:002014-11-25T12:21:07.303-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kicking
someone when they are down does not necessarily arise from evil or selfish
intentions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it may arise from
very good, nay altruistic, intentions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Normally people are so full of themselves that it is next to impossible
to arouse them out of their dogmatic slumber by a well-intentioned kick, that
is, criticism of even the most constructive kind, the kind that tries to help
the other person help themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If, on
the other hand, the person is already down from having received a kick from
someone else, this may be the best time to state or reiterate the constructive
criticism, because the person is “prone” to accept, at such a juncture, that he
or she is less than perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If, for
instance, someone has been chastised at some public forum, this may be the best
time to get through to the person with oft-reiterated criticism, and to have a
realistic hope that the person would agree to fundamental reforms that would
have been considered out of the question before.</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-3288209649686528782000-06-15T12:18:00.000-04:002014-11-25T12:19:44.176-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
fact that by choice or necessity people sometimes give up their citizenship does
not mean that they give up their nationality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is why a multicultural society like Canada can really only survive
if it is willing to implement a quite radical form of multiculturalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially for a first-generation immigrant,
the culture of the old country, its poetry, literature, and generally its ways
of being are integral elements of his or her identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To ask this person to give all this up is
akin to asking someone to not be who he or she is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, the supposedly insurmountable objection
that is always made is that a country can only have one culture, one way of
being, and one nationality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other
words, encouraging different cultures to express these differences will only
increase the alienation and segregation of different cultural and ethnic groups
in the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reality, however, is
that this alienation is an existing fact, and not something that
multiculturalism has created.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Canadians
reject “foreigners,” whether or not these “foreigners” adopt Canadian
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So things cannot get worse than
they already are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Multiculturalism has
not created the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can,
however, be a step towards its solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Education is the solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
should aim to increase people’s appreciation of different cultures, of
multi-cultures, and ways of being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
can be a solution both for the social problem, as well as for the individual
problem of the immigrant individual who is forced by the current circumstances
to suppress his or her identity.</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-66920358371270005532000-05-15T12:18:00.000-04:002014-11-25T12:18:43.650-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What
the experience of first-generation immigrants is most similar to is the
experience of early Canadians and some of the pioneers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How can there be much similarity between the experience of those hardy
self-reliant individuals and that of the supposedly soft, subsidy-dependent
immigrant?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Immigrants, when they first
arrive, mostly have to put up with apartment-living for many years, even if, as
is mostly the case, they are from a middle class and relatively well-to-do
background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is similar to the
pioneer building a primitive shack that serves to keep out (some of) the
elements, until many years later, when he can perhaps build himself something
better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the immigrant who, many
years later, and at the expense of much risk and sacrifice, builds or buys
himself a home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pioneer’s life
consists of a constant battle against a hostile environment that has no place
in it for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first-generation
immigrant’s life much the same.</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-62246458114765728732000-04-15T12:16:00.000-04:002014-11-25T12:17:44.245-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There
is a perception that children are more violent than they used to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One way in which this is expressed is that
children are not really the innocent little creatures they used to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This notion, however, is not a new one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its older form was the idea that to realize
that children are not really innocent is to look at their cruelty to each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all this is a case of
category error.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we say children are
innocent, we are not making an ethical statement, or a moral statement about
their having good or evil actions in their past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are merely saying that they have very
little experience of the world and its ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course the problem is connected with the superimposition of the labels
or concepts of good and evil onto our actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of calling actions what they are, for example, antisocial, etc.,
and dealing with the question of how to improve or encourage them, we abdicate
our own responsibility to deal with them, by abandoning them to labels such as
blessed or villainous.</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-74948315564130889982000-03-15T12:13:00.000-05:002014-11-25T12:16:00.609-05:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a
sense of eternity about books, works of art, and generally all human
achievements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or perhaps a
consolation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One tells oneself: surely
if human beings can create such works, their lives must <em>mean </em>something?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely it can’t be the case that they just
live a few decades and turn into nothing and that’s that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps this is more of a consolation than a
fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The consolation is that even if we
are in fact highly ephemeral beings, we at least have the power to expand and
extend the <i>width</i> of our live indefinitely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The obverse interpretation perhaps takes two
forms: Camus’ defiance of meaninglessness, and Dylan Thomas’s “Rage against the
dying of the light!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of Proust,
dying at 51…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-58553896110080305572000-02-15T12:09:00.000-05:002014-11-25T12:12:39.342-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Looking
at old buildings in the Rococo style, one sometimes get the feeling that their
ornamentation is somehow inauthentic, that it has been put there to give the
eye something to play with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One purpose
of 20<sup>th</sup> century architects may have been to introduce more honesty
into architecture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wall becomes just
the wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A window becomes just a window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But don’t we <em>need </em>the deception?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t we need an architect that makes a
building disguise its function, and pretend to be a work of art?</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-37386138431553118412000-01-15T12:06:00.000-05:002014-11-25T12:09:23.486-05:00<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Windex
has a new product that has a “potpourri” smell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It used to be that Windex smelled of what it is, that is an NH3, and
potpourri smell of what it is, that is, pleasant flowers and plants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Windex smelled of something inherently
undesirable and unpleasant, which is what it is; we use it because its evil
nature has the accidental characteristic of producing some good –
cleansing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Potpourri smelled of
something inherently pleasant, which is what it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now something inherently evil has a
pleasant smell!</span>Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-59449652201283574821995-10-18T15:41:00.000-04:002020-08-24T15:42:46.785-04:00“Religion free of old <i>and</i> new dogmas.” Catholic Bishops are worried that evangelical sects, ritualistic sects, and New Age beliefs are winning adherents from the Church. These movements promise a more immediate and involving form of religion. The bishops envy the spiritual uplift the new groups provide. They feel the Church has neglected spiritual questions. One problem I see is that both groups derive spirituality from dogma. True spirituality should be founded on human reality, not baseless and antiquated superstition. Both groups also neglect the necessary social dimension of spirituality, as, e.g., in Kant. One group seeks spirituality in crystals, the in rosaries and votive candles – all “idols.” The concentration on dogma and ritual to a large extent focuses on the exterior of the region, rather than its interior. It only takes away from true religiosity. Results include hypocrisy, ranging from finding religious reasons to do evil, to a complete unawareness of the ethical dimension of religion.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-63404761396764251251995-06-14T12:52:00.000-04:002020-07-11T13:10:13.241-04:00During the recent Ontario election campaign, it was surprising to see that the letters to the editor in the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail in in each case opposite to the respective papers' editorial position. The Globe's letters were consistently opposed to and critical of Harris' plans; the Star's were on both sides, though perhaps the majority were in one way or another supportive of Harris' "ideas." It has been said that you can't fool all of the people all of the time. But perhaps you can fool most of the people all of the time, if they happen to be foolish and uneducated to begin with. It is quite likely that the average Globe reader is more highly educated than that of the Star. So although one would expect the Globe reader's "objective interests" can be better served by the Harris agenda than by the Liberal or NDP ones, it is probably simply a lot more difficult to fool the Globe's average reader. He or she is not going to fall for a foolish political platform, no matter what. Compassion and doing the right thing are not simply subjective "liberal" bleeding-heart emotionalisms. They also have an objective side, which is intelligence and higher education. The intellectual elite, out of a kind of "good" snobbery, will not go in for plebian right-wing stances that repudiate high human ideals, which, after all, the elite imagines itself as having created. Of course in fact another class' struggles created those ideals, but they are a bond between some of the lowest and highest classes.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-84102933974572311321995-06-13T14:10:00.000-04:002020-08-24T14:23:45.388-04:00What used to be "negative opinion of women" is now "misogyny." "Dislike of Blacks" is now "racism." "Dislike of foreigners" is now "xenophobia." and so on and so forth. What used to belong to the realm of personal attitudes (whether feeling or opinion) now has an objective impersonal interpretation. It has been removed from the socially-defined and/or sanctioned (either as allowed or as encouraged) personal realm to the social realm of psycho-socially defined ideosyncracy.
A similar phenomenon has taken place in what is more strictly the realm of morality. In some cultures, it is considered a father's duty to avenge a "dishonoured" daughter. To us moderns, however, such an idea of moral duty seems rather farcical. The process is again the same as in the other case. In the case of the avenging father, the social sanction coincides with the personal attitude; society and the father agree on what is the right thing to do. In the modern situation, society has taken the decision as to what is the right thing to do out of the father's hand. However, what may at first seem like a loss of freedom is an increase of freedom. The old father was given no alternatives. The modern father has alternatives, including personal revenge.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-76257590320722563211995-06-13T13:54:00.002-04:002020-08-24T14:10:23.730-04:00The contemporary changes in the nature of the forces of production (the social content) have destabilized the relations of production (the social form) to the extent of destabilizing the liberal democratic political system itself.
On the issue of the electorate's "loss of faith" in politicians, it should be remembered that this is in fact a "good thing," because, when translated out of the language of liberal democracy and into the language of revolutionary Marxism, it signifies a partial liberation from the constraints of capitalist ideology. Capital is inehrently incapable of justifying faith.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-3672255175424067961995-03-21T12:24:00.000-05:002020-07-10T12:28:58.248-04:00Jack London describes an England where crimes against property received far harsher penalties than crimes against persons. The current economic outlook defines economic prosperity as increase of profits, rather than declining unemployment. There is a connection here, because "the new economy" and "reinventing government" are attempts to return society to the way things where prior to the creation of the welfare state.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-68226481364057433811995-02-21T12:17:00.000-05:002020-07-10T12:23:45.888-04:00If we call ourselves human beings, we must act accordingly. Being human means giving, and wanting to give. Having too much when one's neighbor is starving is inhuman, immoral, and, ideally, illegal.<br />
<br />
This type of argument, applied to the question of immigration, implies that citizenship confers legal privileges, but no moral ones. As Canadians, we have a right to keep others out of this country. As human beings, though, we have no such right.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-15652920496156731721995-02-17T14:15:00.000-05:002020-07-09T14:35:59.187-04:00<br />
The line one usually hears these days is: "There was some form of socialism in the Soviet Union because there was nationalized property. But now has been capitalist restoration, and the nationalized property is more or less gone. Now we have to wait and hope that through some process the nationalized property will be restored."<br />
<br />
Doesn't this line of argument put the cart before the horse, in that it stresses the forces of production at the expense of the relations of production? Wouldn't it be appropriate to move away from this non-dialectical form of thinking, and towards a more Hegelian form that revolves around class struggle and relations of production? Such as line of thought would see the Russian situation as a dialectical development. In other words, it would see the current state of matter as a continuation, not of reversal, of the social developments in Russia during the 20th Century. plane MOIS show during the 20th century. It could be based on the idea that forces of production are almost an epiphenomenon of the relations of production. In other words, the condition of the forces of production is a response to changes in the relations of production, and therefore that the "defeat" of socialism in Russia may in fact indicate an accelerated phase of development in the relations of production, and not the reverse. Such a seemingly farfetched idea can be defended if one remembers that that in the relations between capital and labour, labour is the reality and capital the epiphenomenon. In other words, whatever action capital takes is a <em>reaction</em>, not an action, and therefore when it takes a really drastic step, such as dismantling a social system, this may be taken as a sign of the strength and vitality of class struggle at that conjuncture.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-28012863108195912941995-01-31T13:54:00.000-05:002020-07-09T13:57:18.898-04:00In the same way that materialism is a necessary foundation for any social science, existentialism is a necessary foundation for materialism. Materialist explorations help take incoherencies and inconsistencies out of ordinary explanations.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-41068896718004825141995-01-31T13:48:00.000-05:002020-07-09T13:53:23.694-04:00Left politics applied to social issues, i.e., political correctness, was originally an attempt to show that values are situation dependent, i.e., "relative." The right, however, may try to turn left values, such as anti-harassment, on their head by making them into absolutes. The response to this should be, e.g., that if someone does not <em>feel</em> harassed, then he or she is <em>not</em> being harassedAl S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-57854358728788250871995-01-31T11:56:00.000-05:002020-07-09T12:02:04.780-04:00Custom mediates between class consciousness and cultural development. Casual "friendly" conversation between persons of unequal rank and socioeconomic status, for example within an organization, can be construed, on the one hand, as an unconscious admission of the injustice of the current arrangement, and, on the other hand, as a step toward a more advanced arrangement.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-37683074182665624381994-11-14T15:51:00.000-05:002018-07-03T15:54:22.066-04:00Christmas is supposed to make one feel sad, especially if one is not with one's family (or doesn't have one), and so on. A liberating outlook is to consider the silliness of the whole thing (a red-nosed reindeer! Give me a break!) and to feel one wouldn't be caught dead having anything to do with the whole preposterous charade.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-70049045430694803371994-07-04T15:40:00.000-04:002018-07-03T15:51:25.261-04:00Life in many third-world countries is a daily round of frustration. Western institutional ways of doing things, which are in reality mechanisms of conflict avoidance, are, for various reasons, not in place. This situation breeds two related attitudes, especially in any contact with authority or bureaucracy. One is an assumption that any such contact will be conflictual. The other is that of a sense of pervasive powerlessness. The person takes it for granted that any situation is an unchangeable given, and therefore that situations exist to serve existing interests, rather than his/her interests. The person therefore conceives of any contact as necessarily fraught with conflict.<br />
<br />
The problem is in a sense magnified when people immigrate to Canada or other Western countries. The newcomer finds themselves in a situation where they have major problems (as opposed to relatively minor ones they faced at home), yet with a perception of powerlessness (inherited from their background) to solve them. The person continues to proceed according to the old rules of behaviour. The result is that the person appears hostile and demanding. They lack the apparently simple knowledge that one will likely be listened to if one complains or makes demands. This, of course, creates much unnecessary social conflict and personal unhappiness. Appropriately-expressed needs may help reduce the need or chance for conflict. Just imagine yourself growing up and becoming an adult in a place where you have no control over anything . . .Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-61804417501662597501994-06-23T12:59:00.000-04:002018-07-02T13:02:06.318-04:00Those who oppose social spending on grounds that it is just spending money on some else and not on themselves, should realize that the kind of society they live in is not something that has nothing to do with them. Their children will have to live in a society damaged by their parents' lack of social responsibility.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-60466788286470571331994-06-22T12:44:00.000-04:002018-07-02T12:57:46.207-04:00In his speech to South African MPs, excerpted in a Toronto newspaper on May 25, Nelson Mandela made the following points, among others:<br />
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(1) "My government's commitment to create a people-centered society of liberty binds us to the pursuit of the goals of freedom from want, freedom from hunger, freedom from deprivation, freedom from ignorance, freedom from suppression, and freedom from fear . . ."<br />
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(2) "Consequently, we are assured that the business sector can and will make a significant contribution toward the structuring and management of such reconstruction and development funds, toward the effective identification and implementation of projects and by supporting the financing of the socioeconomic development effort."<br />
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(3) "We must end racism in the workplace as part of our common offensive against racism in general. No more should words like 'Kaffirs,' 'Hottentots,' 'Coolies,' 'Boy,' 'Girl,' and 'Baas' be part of our vocabulary."<br />
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The "people-centered society of liberty" will pursue <em>negative</em> liberties -- freedom from hunger, deprivation, and so on. Goals of <em>communal</em> liberty appear to be beyond the program's self-imposed limits. In fact, such liberties may be excluded by the positively liberal nature of the slogans -- "people-centered society of liberty"! Give me a break!<br />
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The people will not be given a chance to determine the direction of social development. Decisions about what is good for them will be taken by the business elite, who will be in charge of determining the goals and nature of the reconstruction program.<br />
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But as no-one will be called a Kaffir anymore, society will obviously have undergone a revolutionary transformation!Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15433746.post-73005958893981778451994-04-14T12:34:00.000-04:002018-07-02T12:40:15.277-04:00Immigration and Refugee MattersThe issue is not compassion versus hatred, hard-heartedness, and so on. The issue that the above covers up is the real reasons for governments allowing immigration. The correct, scientific, and rational way to proceed is <em>also</em> the compassionate way. This is similar to doing "compassionate" things -- like "feeding kids" -- in order to avoid doing what needs to be done -- making hunger obsolete by redistributing <em>power</em> in society.<br />
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As for refugees, a "genuine refugee" (a person that the Canadian government cares a lot about) is a person who is persecuted by a government, that is, usually some kind of activist. Removing such a person from the context of their activism amounts to that person's political death, and helps to weaken the opposition. This may explain why Western liberal governments are so pro-human-rights, and so eager to remove refugees from politically volatile situations abroad.Al S. Eslamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330166645194401768noreply@blogger.com0