Savant's Words

VALUES Revolution is not merely the process of altering the shape of the political or economic structure of society. It involves a radical transvaluation of values. It is interesting that revolutionary thinkers as diverse as Frantz Fanon, Herbert Marcuse, Emma Goldman, and Martin Luther KIng, Jr. all call for a revolution of values, and a fundamental transformation of interhuman relations. Fanon's speaks of the emergence of the "new man." Marcuse speaks of a radical change in our ways of seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking and imagining. Malcolm X, focusing on the specifics of Black American, talks about the need for a "cultural revolution" to de-brainwash, decolonized millions of Black people. Truth be told, whites may be even MORE in need of mental liberation than we. But the need in some shape or form is universal. We must reshape our personal lives and our social existence. Otherwise, the "revolution " becomes more or less the same old crap in a different guise. 

-Savant

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Only in your imagination, not in the real world. Systematic studies of the media have exposed the anti-Black bias over and over again. So, that's not even news. There have been DECADES of studies which show the anti-Black bias in the media. Check out some of the works of Thomas Cripps.

-Savant

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When fascism comes to a society from without it is mainly by means of conquest. German fascism which you mention in the Netherlands would be an example of that. There is no Jihadist regime that can conquer a European country nowadays. There's no predominantly Muslim country that can conquer Europe the USA. That's simply not real. I do fear for the people of Iraq if isis should TAKE power. I'm not fearful of jihadists taking power in France or the USA. Whether the National Front fascism is preferable to Jihadist fascism is an interesting issue, perhaps. With atrocities by Jean-Marie Le Pen (and others) in Algeria actually rivaling those of ISIS, it is at least debatable which would be worse. But the debate may be "academic " in the worst sense of the word. Jihadism CAN happen a number of Middle Eastern countries. And a form of Gallic or Yankee fascism can happen in France or the USA. The National Front is not committing atrocities in Iraq, though I'm sure they wouldn't doing so. Political and racist repression is not being inflicted here (for example, inn Ferguson) by Muslim extremists. The threat the Muslim extremists can offer to democratic life in America and Europe is to serve as boogeymen stoking the fires of Islamophobia (which easily shades into ethnocentrism and racism) which better enables our homegrown reactionaries to impose their own fascist agenda. They can't CONQUER the West as the Turks conquered Greece and the Saracens conquered Spain.. They can do outrageous acts of terror which create a climate favorable for domestic fascism. And that DOES scare me. And I'm not so sure the West--or at least Western elites-- are so naive. They deliberately PROVOKED militant Islamicism against Mosadegh, and later against the Soviets. They've been in bed with Islamicists over there just as they promote rightist Christian fundamentalism (also fascistic) over here when it suited their purpose. I wouldn't put anything past the plutocratic despots

 -Savant

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KING ON YOUTUBE As many of you know, I've a very low opinion of Youtube and usually disregard anyone who refers to it as evidence for anything in a discussion or debate. But one does sometimes fnd a few pearls among swine. I would recommend folk look at Youtube clip called "The REVOLUTIONARY MLK." That involves, if I recall correctly, an interview with Professor Jared Ball of Morgan State University. And there are other interesting clips entitled "The Radicalization of Martin Luther King" and "Martin Luther King's Legacy and the Black Elite." More importantly, you can find speeches by Dr. King himself, or Malcolm X, or Stokely Carmichael, Rap Brown, Angela Davis, Fred Hampton and others. So, if you are SELECTIVE about what you tune into--avoiding that Tommy Sotomayor trash--you can find some things of value.


 -Savant

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