Michael Parenti -- Real Democracy!
posted by Mediapitek at
18:25
Friday, 23 February 2007
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4 Comments:
I loved this video. Parenti is great - he is able to take pretty complex themes and formulate them in a way that would be easily accessible to the generally educated public (like 62% in Armenia).
This is what I mean when in one of my comments about that Political Quiz test, that it is important to take into account the general equality in economic distribution when considering the extent of Democracy and Freedom in a given society (which is why I designed an alternative political map).
By the way, Naomi Klein (author of books like "No Logo") did a very interesting reserch about popular resistance at that stage in Argentina - about how they started forming their own autonomous self-governing Syndicates, Unions, Cooperatives and Communes (no external help like in Georgian and Ukrainian pretentious pseudo-revolutions), until the governent basically resigned.
There is nothing more powerful than people-power... when people are concious.
If you are interested in this kind of stuff on a more theoretical level then Ernesto Laclau's "Hegemony and Socialist Strategy" is a must read!!! I cannot overemphacise the importance of this book.
Also Hardt & Negri's "Empire", of course.
There is also a lot of interesting research going on about cultivating Democratic Subjectivities" - just google Aletta Norval.
Interestingly, our very own Mr. Eduardo Eurnekian, an Armenian businessman from Argentina, who holds monopoly over running of Zvartnots Airport for the next 30 years, and also the one who recently bought Converse Bank (you can read about it here http://azat.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/america-from-freedom-to-fascism-and-the-question-of-banking-in-armenia/#more-21) is one of those in the Argentinian power-elites who had to flee the country taking with him whatever he could and start his pilaging activities in a new country.
By the way, how many blogs do you have? Is this the same Oserver as in the Blog-Reviews in both languages? If so then I'm already counting 3 blogs.
all the best. Respect & Solidarity.
Dear Friend - Kronstadt, if I may be allowed to call you friend - that will indeed be an honor for me.
Thank you for the comments - I am a man in quest - quest for the ultimate human destiny... one of necessary conditions for any human being to achieve the full degree of self-realization is the social organization which he leaves in (as we humans are social animals). At least that's what I think, but I'm open to discussion...
I am a little bit drunk right now - so maybe what I'm saying doesn't make a lot of sense, but I want you to know, that I really appreciate your contributions in my blog, and your posts at the ALS Movement.
One of the things I value most in this life is the possibility to meet and talk to people who are not afraid of expressing opinions and feelings. I don't mind when those opinions differ from mine radically and I especially like when I can agree to most of what the person I am engaged in a discussion with says. I find most of your thoughts and ideas acceptable for me - that is why I will keep looking very closely at all your posts at the ALS movement.
Regarding my blogs: you are right - I have a bit too many blogs, let me enumerate them for you if that is important:
http://www.blogrel.com (I'm one of the contributors there)
http://ditord.blogspot.com
http://oragir.wordpress.com
http://ditord.wordpress.com
http://munetik.wordpress.com
http://hyelinux.blogspot.com
http://360.yahoo.com/armpda
So - turns out I have 7 blogs! I didn't ever think of counting it. But the main thing is: I feel that I should not be greedy and keep it all these thoughts to myself, and I feel, that by sharing my thoughts and getting feedback and possibility for discussion, I become richer and gain a possiblity to benefit from the wisdom and experience of other people, who are often more superior to me, as I am still too young (28 years of life and experience is less then nothing when you think of thousand years of human civilizaiton).
I am a generally open person - I am the kind of guy who will always be the first to start a conversation in a room full of people who are all uneasy and don't know each other.
I put absolute value in what every single person has to say - and I feel robbed of something, when someone doesn't want to share her/his ideas with me.
I don't really care about "democracy" as a system, because I know, that it is not a system, but rather an unreachable idea, like many other ideas, and I recognize, that there might be much better systems, which we - humans haven't yet discovered.
I despise every authority, but I recognize the need for having some sort of authority. In fact, in 99% of cases I am the one to take charge or act as the authority in any group I am a member of. That is one of the reasons I don't like power, because I "like power a lot", and I always take control when I can. I know very well how addictive it can be...
So anyway - sounds rather messy, but that's me... I am a chaotic person - and I have understood very recently (thanks to your blog), that in reality I am an anarchist - I just didn't know that (although I had vague suspicions)...
All the best. Respect & Solidarity.
Oh, and I also post at: http://angry_root.livejournal.com ;) so that makes them 8!
friend, the honour is all mine.
About being an anarchist: we wouldn't start our blob and we wouldn't even bother doing anything unless we realised that anarchism is not simply a thory or ideology that was invented in 19th century and has been upgraded ever since. It is, in fact, a lot more than that -- it is a way of life and a way of looking at things. At some point Armenians need to pause for a minute and look back at their history and at their own selves -- that is when each Armenian will discover an anarchist within himself. It is in our culture, it is in our language and terminologies. It's nothing to do with nationalism, but with intricate features that distiguish us as an etho-linguistic group. We generally approach authority with suspicion, and we are inherently (in comparrisson) communicative and social beings. But realising that one is an anarchist is half the story -- the question is what set of policies and tactics can be devised to bring us closer to what is called Radical Democracy.
About authority: anarchists don't regect all authority. That's a myth. In fact, Kropotkin and many others go into a long discussion about this. I mean authority is always needed on a Temporary basis and in Extreme situations... Say for instance something has happened and there is a physicain around, obviously you're going to take his/her authority because of necessity and his/her knowledge. Same thing for sailing a ship in a boat race -- it's just one of those things that needs a Captain to coordinate the action - so people Temporarily ellect the best man for the job. It's one thing to regard Authority as an illegitimate and opressive Place, its another thing to regard authority as a Job on a temporary need-only basis.
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