Prometheus 6

Not if even progressive bloggers shoot the idea down.  Just what we need.

No. I don't do fantasy; the title stays.

I'm not shooting down the idea. I'm saying it's not going to happen. 

But here's a thought: this is the first disagreement you've had with me here that didn't start by saying I or my comment was stupid...and in it you decide to give me an order on my own site?

It doesn't work. Information works, commentary works. Orders don't. Neither does calling my ideas stupid, but that's easier to deal with than attitude.

That's more than one thought, but hey...my site. 

Whether it's an order or not, the question is...is it right?

Now if you say, "no, this isn't right" then it doesn't matter whether it comes as an order, or a request.

It seems to me that the goal of your site is encapsulated by the statement I see when I entered:

"...freedom is never a final act, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationships."

Are you promoting freedom by shooting down an idea that you yourself agree with?  An idea that isn't as inane as say...reparations?  

The reason I didn't start off by noting that your statement was "stupid" was because in this case it was NOT (as opposed to the others).  The argument contained in your statement is eminently logical and intelligent.  BUT if you are interested in moving towards freedom, towards practical solutions, I don't see how shooting down an idea gets us there.   

 In fact, it moves us in the opposite direction, by demobilizing people who may be predisposed to aid in this endeavor.  In this way it doesn't matter whether it is "your site" or not, anymore than it mattered that those "looter" pictures were on Yahoo's site. 

Ah.

 IRRESPONSIBLE is the word.

Are you promoting freedom by shooting down an idea that you yourself agree with?  An idea that isn't as inane as say...reparations? 

Is it going to happen? That's the question.

As for reparations, my own position is, we deserve it and will not get it. However, it is useful to understand the justification for both reparation and the refusal to acknowledge they are due. Pretty much the same position I hold here.

As for the stupidity, you ain't won a single dispute. Nuff. Said. 

"Is it going to happen?  That's the question."

 No it isn't...not to you.  You have an answer already right?  For me, the question is COULD it happen?  This is an interesting moment in time...an opportunity that might not last that long, but I'll say YES.  For what it is worth, I think A P Randolph would be with me.  This isn't reparations at ALL, and here the future is not written.  I thought you understood that. 

This isn't reparations at ALL, and here the future is not written.  I thought you understood that.

I do. I thought YOU understood that things take time. The rebuilding of New Orleans means so much money to so many established forces that it will not wait. By the time you pull your coalition together the contract will be handed out, plans laid and YOU will be cast as an obstacle.

Randolph had different issues to deal with...much respect, but I don't look to him as a model as much as an inspiration. And he didn't wait for a crisis to get all transformative. 

Look at who you're dealing with. A government that ACTIVELY does not give a fuck and a citizenry that ACTIVELY rejects rationality. And a crew that's on the ground NOW, with the connections, resources, government support and a legitimate claim to the 20% of New Orleans that survived.

It will not work because there isn't time for it to work. At best you'll get something as symbolic as General Powell. So get your shit together, use this as a seed, a reason, to organize long term. Because without that organization any significant shift in power (which is what this is about, what this will take to accomplish) is a wet dream.

Not a single dispute.

And I disagreed with you without insults because were are ostensibly on the same side. You think you can do that too? 

Do what?  Where did I insult YOU?  

Where did I insult YOU? 

Somewhere in the hyperthread...the one that extended over three months. I'm not going to dig it out, but I do remember "stupid" started showing up after that point.

To the extent that the social opportunity structure is a function of not only material resources, but also cultural resources (which are themselves a partial function of language), "never gonna happen" language demobilizes citizens and prevents them from both short term AND LONG TERM organizing.

People of the Word. 

What does setting them up for failure do? 

I've said that any number of statements were stupid here.  Things you've said.  Craig has said.  Others.

To People of the Word, yes.

And how about that setting them up for failure thing?

Here I'm taking a few leaps:

Given your assumptions, I understand your reactions. I think, though, you're judging the single frame as though it were the whole movie. 

I try to bring the facts that I see and explain my understanding of things as clearly as possible. Sometimes that means I have to go against the grain.

Which grain?  People are already skeptical that the money is going to go where it should, and they already are prone to believe that bush is going to give new orleans to his cronies.  In the mass pubic there are probably very few people who believe that New Orleans can be transformed for the better.  

But at some level we've got to go against the norm that continually critiques without providing an alternative vision of what's possible if we work.

All that from a headline?

How many people here think my headlines are the last word on my positions?

"The grain" is the belief that one can construct a reality based on mere verbiage.

Well, there's our disagreement. Words affect what you think reality is. That's a far cry from constructing a reality.

There was a faith healer from Beale
Who said, "Although pain is not real<

When the point of a pin
Penetrateth my skin

I dislike what I fancy I feel 

It's clear that P6 has decided to be cynical about the opportunity. Don't waste your breath.

Well, there's one member of the audience lost...