: : Anyhow, I have a question for you.
: : Nickel Jack often uses the example of King Leopold II's claiming the Congo basin for his own use at the turn of the last century as an example of Capitalism.
: : 1. Considering that raw material was being taken out of a country (the Congo)for processing in another country (Belgium), wouldn't Mercantalism more accurately describe King Leopold's actions?
: : 2. For Nickel Jack, if your reading this after all, have you been keeping up with the news of the shananigans of those wonderful Congolese? Think they've surpassed 10 Million yet? How will we know? Do you care? : Frenchy, you know as well as me that every post I ever made to you 9and some of them got pretty nasty, I'll admit) was in REACTION to a post of yours. I don't believe I've ever directed a post to you, unprovoked. I'm satisfied to let you have whatever views you want, but when you start badmouthing things that mean a lot to me, that I care about, then I'm not going to let it go unchallenged. What am I supposed to do when you make insulting remarks about teh Sandinistas? Not respond? In that case, what gives YOU the right to respond to MY posts, and not vice versa? Tolerance is a two-way street, and you haven't been exactly very tolerant of people who disagree with you. I can cite you chapter and verse if you want.
I feel the same way. The history of this country, the USA, may not have much significance to you, but it does to me. I am very sensitive to people from foreign countries who come to this country and give offense. I'm not sophisticated enough and don't want to be. If you think the Sandanistas do such a great job you should move there. Remember the book "The Ugly American"? The book about Americans who while in foreign countries laugh at native customs, deride native mores and customs, lord their wealth over natives? Well, that situation has a mirror image. It's the image of foreigners who come from backwards and superstitious countries to America and look down their noses at my country.
: And I don't believe I've ever insulted you to the tune of what you called me, 'overeducated poseur'. I don't believe I've ever questioned your sincerity, only your debating tactics and political views. Juts an observation...
Look, you and the others like you claim to represent the views of who? The workers. Are you a worker? And I don't mean some chickenshit 2 month gig at Jimmy Carter's pet project. I mean working with your hands for a living. Day in and day out. No, your not.
If I pretended to be a PhD you'd have every right to call me out. I'm not a PhD. Your not a worker. How can you, or anyone else, speak for them? How do you know what they talk about? What they feel? Your only conception of workers is what you've learned in classes, not the real world. Yet you claim that you have the answers for the ills of the workers. Isn't that a fair definition of a poseur? And your certainly more educated than I am. One thing I will agree w/ Stoller about; you and Samual Day Fassbinder, if ever your socialist/communist/liberal/green world comes to pass, you won't be found in the ranks of workers. Not in a million years.
: Secondly,imperialism is certainly capitalism. Lenin apparently called it the highest stage of capitalism or something like that. Thirdly, the DRC may be going to hell in a handbasket (thanks to the despotic 30-year rule of a man named Mobutu, one of Reagan's favorite African allies) but I don't believe they've come anywhere nnear the 10 million mark. Right now they're believed to have suffered about one percent of that number of casualties, actually.
That's one million people! And I haven't been able to locate any firm figures for that 10 million either. By the way, the Congolese did in fact help the Belgians to enslave their own people. They did the same thing in regards to slavery. Don't they themselves deserve any blame? By assigning all the blame to whites aren't you in effect saying that they are to stupid to be held up to the same standards as whites?
