Message-ID: <970105094323_2021217878@emout04.mail.aol.com> Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 09:43:24 -0500 From: mailto:EUNSteve@AOL.COM> Subject: Re: pushing development--or pushing the status quo? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
In a message dated 97-01-04 21:12:14 EST, mailto:bdiamond@mind.net (B. Diamond) writes:<< Your continued refusal to accept the idea that more is NOT better does more to support the notion of western ignorance, insensitivity, etc. than any argument I could make....>>
You are mistaken: I fully accept the idea that less is better and that small is beautiful and that development should be sustainable.
I suspect that I am as virtuous--in language--as you are.
And as guilty in personal practice as you are.
What I do not know how to do is to participate in "development" without creating the same appetites in those "developed" for more that I have.
> This story of Western duplicity looting and despoiling was old and
somewhat > tired before the novel and the movie The Ugly American made it a worldwide
> cliche.
<<Your arrogance and callousness seem to know no bounds!!! I have spent years working here, and abroad, with people who continue to be exploited by the world's wealthy nations. I can assure you steve, that to the victims of this world-dominance, their oppression is very real; to dismiss their plight as nothing more than a "cliche" is reprehensible!!!>>
You might consider your manners and your style of controversy and debate here. Outraged virtue is the last refuge of the disputant who has run out of useful things to say.
I made a statement: The Ugly American story is old, tired, and a cliche. You repeat it over and over.
It is at best only one of many stories that can be told about what has happened.
There are other versions of what life was like before 'development", and it was often not the utopia The Ugly American story tells, but a life that Marx himself called "rural idiocy": nasty, brutish, short. Women reproduction machines. Both sexes dying young. Not your leisure time Utopias in many cases, but sunup to sundown toil. Disease and hunger and burying children and death.
And the missionaries brought medicine as well as loin cloths and Jesus, and letters and learning as well as hymns.
And American development brought schools and roads. And books and libraries.
And when a culture leaves the Garden of Eden there is no return.
And every culture grieves for that imagined Eden.
Which never really existed.
> I have, however, met and encountered hundreds of "rebels" here and
> abroad--often Marxists of the "pedagogy of the oppressed" school of
> liberation theology--who tell and retell the story of Western evil in the
> same tones and with the same kinds of examples Mr. Diamond uses.
<<Ah yes, I wondering when you'd go here. C'mon steve, why not just call me a communist? After all, anyone who questions the ends of capitalism IS a commie, right? The historical record is full of the types of examples I cite steve, perhaps a refresher course in world history would help you with your denial on this subject. I'd suggest Howard Zinn and Michael Parenti for starters.>>
No, Brett, I don't think you're a communist: being a communist is a tough discipline that most viruous Americans have no stomach for. Your authors do support the notion that you've been impressed by Marxism, whether you have a formal background in Marxist theory or not: Zinn and Parenti, of course , are of the Marxist "oppression" school. Do you also cite Freire often, as in "pedagogy of the oppressed"?
Suggesting that your community of discourse is Marxist means to be accurate, not name calling.
Have you for your part read the critics of the "oppression" school--like Peter Berger, theologian and sociologist; Michael Novak; P.J. Bauer? If not, are you willing to read authors who challenge your foundational beliefs, your taken for granteds? Or are you content to live with the intellectual capital you get from such as Zinn and parenti?
(Noam Chomsky does a far better job for your position than Zinn, I think, who is a lightweight.)
> I personally drive an auto, have an air conditioner, go to the shopping
mall > and buy hamburgers, and in general consume far more than my per capita
share > of the world's resources.
> In all probability so does Mr Diamond: in my experience very few of the
> advocates of sustainable life styles and cashless economies choose to
leave > their US lifestyles.
<<Ah yes, the second common argument against change--if I (or others who share my views about the dearth of capitalism) don't live in a sod hut and grow our own food, we're hypocrites who have no right to question the status quo. WRONG! At least we are willing to acknowledge that change is needed, and many of us devote our lives to seeing it through. We're not afraid of change, are you?>>
What those who preach steady state and n growth and change for others without changing their own practice do is worse than hypocrisy.
It is the real Western insensitivity and ignorance and refusal to face reality that they accuse others of. That you accuse me of.
Don't do like I do, they say to the poor of the world, do like I say.
My bravery, they say, is my willingness to change my preaching--not my practice.
I won't change my vulgar unsustainable lifestyle, but I want you to maintain your simple lifestyle.
Want to make it possible for your "oppressed" to enjoy the good things of the world?
Stay home.
Figure out how to "develop" Americans.
Figure out a strategy for getting Americans to give up their luxuries, and overconsumption, and unsustainable lifestyle.
If you could get Brett and Steve and others like them to be willing to give up their autos and air conditioners and the endless consumption you would be freeing up resources so that the poor of the world can have them.
Any ideas on how to get Brett and Steve to give up their cars and become models of a new sustainable lifestyle, rather than preachers?
Steve Eskow
Dr. Steve Eskow, President The Electronic University Network 288 Stone Island Road Enterprise, FL 32725 407.321.8770;Fax:407.321.4861 January 5, 1997