[sustran] Alex one last time -- Private Monopoly and Vested Political Interests in SA v.3 (fwd)

Eric Bruun ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu
Fri Mar 6 23:43:01 JST 1998



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 08:35:09 -0500
From: Alex Welte <alex at sgimess.physics.upenn.edu>
To: Eric Bruun <ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Re: Private Monopoly and Vested Political Interests in SA v.3 


> And now for the :"kicker" --- doubtless e-mail brimstone will rain down upon
> me....

Not nearly so exciting, actually. My intention is neither to change your
mind or rail against your views very passionately, but I think the
situation is becoming clearer than it was. Your 'public policy vision'
is in fact turning out to be little more than the standard so-called
free market myopia which praises 'stability' over innovative change that
would take into account serious efforts to adress the problem of
selective deprivation. Claiming that skewed distributions are inherent,
when we know that the powerful resist change, is not deep, or true. The
problem continues to be that the phraseology is such as to 'encourage'
hopelesness. I cannot find an explanation for this position beyond being
deeply indoctrinated, or manipulative. If we like poverty as a means to
sustaining our privilege - why not just say so. If we believe deprivation and
exploitation are problems to be adressed, why phrase the statement of
the problem as thinly veiled advice not to try to rock the boat or else.

Anyway - as I said - I think the remarks on the table so far speak for
themselves, and I'm not optimistic about more progress than the little
we've made thus far - at least not through a bunch of back and forth emails,
but that was all I was ever up for. I happen to be from SA, and couldn't
resist butting in when Eric sent me some stuff off the list. Maybe someone
will tempt me back later, but I have other things to do right now
which take precedence over email debating.






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