[Xmca-l] Re: Understanding/changing "something"

[HENRY SHONERD]

Annalisa,
You make good points all, it seems to me. 

Radical was the term used by the those critical of the words and deeds of the the SDS/Weathermen, revolutionary was what they called themselves. What’s interesting is that their violence was mostly to property, not to people, unlike the Bader-Meinhoff gang in Europe. Tragicomically, in March of 1970, just three months after I returned from Cuba with a bunch of Weathermen (my political consciousness did not rate me a place in their collective) three members of the Weathermen in New York blew themselves up making a bomb. I wince now at how naive and clueless I myself was. Is violence ever justified? effective? 

Respectfully,
Henry
 


> On May 28, 2015, at 4:40 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
> 
> Henry, et al,
> 
> I wonder how revolution corresponds to violence if the violence is built into a tool, such as the case of gun design. After all, a bullet cannot do harm unless it is catapulted at a very fast velocity. 
> 
> Revolution need not be violent, right?
> 
> Another thought: how does violence and the future connect if an adherent of violence as a means of production can only see what is an imagined freedom, instead city streets full of blood, or the maiming of innocents and the emotional upheaval of their families and communities and the repercussions from all that (which is future history). How is this actually freedom, when it only creates future enemies? 
> 
> Why is the interconnectedness of us all completely forgotten in this (imagined) vision of freedom?
> 
> This argument might be offered against any adherent of violence (as a means of production), which (to me) seems to coincide with the notion of disrespect and how disrespect is proffered and perceived in extreme forms.
> 
> Is this captured in the tool design?
> 
> Henry, your post has made me consider what it means to be a radical vs a revolutionary: both seem preoccupied with change and with history, no? What is the difference?
> 
> These are questions I have... not sure what the answers are... 
> 
> Thanks for the prod, and also thanks for all the XMCA dots, everyone!
> 
> Annalisa
>