PEOPLES PRESS INTERNATIONAL (PPI)
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ppi-014- Dialog with 'jacob' re: Thoughts about a better world
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Date: Fri, 8 May 1998
Sender: jacob <•••@••.•••>
To: •••@••.•••
Subject: Re: PPI-025-Thoughts about a better world
rkm had written to jacob:
> I believe you seriously overestimate the difficulty of coming up with
> better economic systems and ideologies.
>
> The problem is a political one, and the failures of our economic system
> simply reflect the values of those in power. The solution is also a
> political one, and when democratic regimes are established, values that
> make sense to people will have no difficulty expressing themselves in
> policy.
dear mr. rkm
thank you very much for bothering to reply. after
i sent you my reaction to your "anti-yugoslav
propaganda" and "fresh air" thing i thought you'll
write me off your list and i am pleased that you
didn't. it was realy a queer thing compared to
your stand on similar issues like the situation in
Chiapas, the sanctions on Iraq and so on. I hope
very much that you have since rethought your views
about the issue of Kosova. after all, the facts are
too much self evident for any ambiguity to be ruled
out: the serbian regime has proved beyond any doubt
his readiness to comit genocide against non-serbs;
the albanian-origined people comprise about 90% of
kosova population but are denied most basic rights
by ruling serbs including the right to learn in
their language, the right to self determination and
lately the right to live as has been demonstrated by
the massacre comitted by serb militia in Drenica. if
the US government can reduce the suffering of Kosova
people I think it will be a good thing regardless of
its aims in doing so .
as for the new economic system and new ideology
issue, i hope with all my heart that time will prove
your being right, that is that those things can be
achieved without major apocaliptical shakeups. my
observation tells me that the so-called "free market
economy" is expanding rapidly and infiltrating every
corner of the earth. in the last decade it took over
its 2 most powerful oponents: China and Russia. as
for Cuba, i really don't know enough about it in
order to draw conclusions; if there is a sound, fair
and workable system, let's hope it will be applied
in other places, too.
what i meant by new ideology and new economic system
is a review of assumptions older than capitalism:
the assumption that growth and development are
positive things; the assumption that a member of the
society is entitled to an amount of wealth
proportional to his work, that is to his
contribution to the process of growth and
development. to put it in a more simple way, it is
quite clear that given the present technological
capacities, most of world population should not be
employed in what the prevailing ideologies see as
productive work. this "productive work" is
increasingly becoming destructive activity since it
produces ever growing quantities and types of
superfluous things, devicing an entire world culture
in order to sell them, and because it threatens life
on earth. but then the basic questions arise: what
will do all those unemployed people do? according to
what criteria will they receive their basic needs?
who will be the people that will keep on working
(not in order to produce coca cola and atomic bombs,
but bread and butter)? who will decide on all those
issues? to me those are still unanswerable
questions. but may be i am wrong and my being listed
with cyberjournal is part of the attempt to find
answers.
jacob
---------
Dear jacob,
Thank _you so much for not writing _me off!
If we only communicate with people we _already agree with, how will
progress ever be made? I commend your `sticking with it', and your being
willing to _listen, and to express yourself _anew in an effort to find
mutual understanding and _even (dare I use the `t' word?) to move toward
_truth.
- - -
Please understand that I (and cadre) don't agree with everything we publish
over ppi, and in particular much of what Bob Djurdjevic writes makes my
hair stand on end. Even those _occasional pieces of his that I do forward
to this list often include attitudes and side-comments that I find
offensive. _BUT he is an independent thinker, he often has very useful
analyses and insights, and I want to give air time to those, just as I do
to your views. The ppi network is for a variety of perspectives, not just
my own or cadre's.
I agree with you that Serbs have been guilty of atrocious crimes against
humanity. But the Croats and the non-Serbian Bosnians have _also been
guilty of atrocious crimes against humanity, and in fact, if you look at
the total population shifts that have occurred, the _Serbs are the ones
that have been most thoroughly ejected from their homelands, the most
thoroughly `ethnically cleansed'.
Is taking sides by outsiders helping the situation? I think not, and I
suggest it is necessary to look at the bigger picture... _Who is really
responsible for the mess in former Yuoglavia? Who is _benefitting from
events there, and what lies have they been telling us over the mass media?
The fact is that Yugoslavia has been _intentionally destabilized by outside
forces; the suffering has been callously _imposed by major powers pursuing
their own geopolitical agendas.
The whole thing started when Germany arm-twisted the European Commission
into recognizing Croat independence. Observers at the time _knew and
_predicted that Croat independence would inevitably lead to a similar
Bosnian demand, and that the result would be bloody civil war. Germany and
the US cooperated in permitting the slaughter to go on for years, making no
serious attempt to `calm the waters', sitting back and watching things
develop just the way they wanted them to develop, completely unconcerned
with the human suffering they themselves are ultimately respnsible for.
If justice is ever to be done, it will only be when the _US and _German
leaders are called before an International War-Crimes Tribunal, for this
and countless other crimes, including the arming of Iraq with biological
weapons and the genocide in Africa (for which the French leaders also need
to be called to account).
What are they getting out of it? What are the geopolitical objectives in
the Balkans that justify (in the minds of the US and German elites)
limitless human suffering?...
...For _Germany, it is simply the rebuilding of the traditional German
sphere-of-influence, accomplishing by other means what Hitler described in
Mein Kampf, and which he failed to accomplish by direct military means.
The destablization of Yugoslavia, the expansion of NATO, and the economic
destablization of the former USSR, are all tactics in support of the Mein
Kampf agenda: the domination of Central and Eastern Europe by Germany, and
the subjugation of the Slavic races by the Germanic race.
...For the _US, there are two obectives that are being served. First is
control over the rich oil fields in the region. Second is the
establishment of the US military as the `legitimate' global policeman.
Whereas the world used to recoil at US interventionism, recognizing it as
US imperialism (in Vietnam, Grenada, and Panama, and numerous other
places), the world now has been hoodwinked into _welcoming US intervention
in Iraq and in Bosnia. By manipulating events, and by controlling the lies
in the global mass media, the US has _created a situation where it can get
by with its adventurism.
The formula is simple: first stir up trouble, and then pretend to be
`solving' the problem, while in fact pursuing undisclosed goals.
If Bob Djurdjevic is the one with the energy and insight to expose this
kind of perfidy, then I'm willing to publish his views, even if I don't
agree with everything he says.
- - -
As for the `new economic system and new ideology' issue, we aren't really
that far apart. I agree totally with what you say about `a review of
assumptions older than capitalism: the assumption that growth and
development are
positive things', etc.
Where we differ is on what is _cause and what is _effect, and how something
can be done about the problem. Capitalism, I submit, is not running things
because the people have _chosen it, or because they _believe in it, or
because no _alternatives have occurred to anyone. Capitalism is running
things because the capitalist elite control all means of public
communication in the West (other than word-of-mouth and the Internet),
because they control the major political parties, and because they _own
most of the politicians.
That's why I say we have a more urgent need for thinking in the political
arena than we do in the economic arena.
In the economic arena there are many, many good thinkers (including
yourself) who have analyzed things, written excellent articles and books,
and are trying to get their ideas better known -- despite being ignored by
the mass media, the majority of academics, and by governments and
politicians.
But in the political arena there is very little useful that has been
written. Everyone complains about the system, and has ideas for better
systems, but very few have workable ideas about how the people can rise up
and do something about it.
for truth and revolution,
rkm
btw> Please send postings to •••@••.•••, not
•••@••.•••. The latter is no longer operating.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Seeking an Effective Democratic
Response to Globalization
and Corporate Power"
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an international workshop for activist leaders
June 25 <incl> July 2 - 1998 - Nova Scotia - Canada
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Restore democratic sovereignty
Create a sane and livable world
Bring corporate globalization under control.
CITIZENS FOR A DEMOCRATIC RENAISSANCE (CADRE)
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