[Xmca-l] Re: As of 2020, the American Century is Over

Thu Apr 23 05:26:48 PDT 2020

That is what I love about it. In fact it reads beautifully.

On Thursday, April 23, 2020, Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:

> Ha, ha, Robert. I wrote it in one crazy stint of 5 or 6 hours and then
> sent it off to M. for critique, made the revisions the next morning in half
> and hour and then posted it. It is not meant to be a sober and balanced
> "scientific" article.
>
> Andy
> ------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> Hegel for Social Movements [brill.com]
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!XNPS3SyvimPE07DN6bpEg8ZcRNBUYPF2wTLYm-ZSOSV0csUsdgt-LD3B5263lR1CleY_mg$>
> Home Page [ethicalpolitics.org]
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!XNPS3SyvimPE07DN6bpEg8ZcRNBUYPF2wTLYm-ZSOSV0csUsdgt-LD3B5263lR1wAoduaw$>
> On 23/04/2020 2:03 pm, Robert Lake wrote:
>
> I was amazed at how much you packed in to this piece Andy. How long did it
> take you to write the first draft?
> Robert Lake
>
> On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:
>
>> A short supplement.
>>
>> Apart from the ABC, I rely on my wonderful American friends. One of
>> these, M., lives in Brooklyn and has worked all his life in the NY hospital
>> system, and I sent him my first draft for comment. His voluminous reply was
>> presaged "I disagreed with much of it ..." including his opinion that the
>> American Century was over in January 2017 and that he thought things would
>> go back to normal once the pandemic was over. I held my ground on those two
>> issues, but thankfully he was able to correct a number of errors resulting
>> from the fact that I live a world away from America. M. is the most erudite
>> and critical person I have ever known, so I am always sure of my sources
>> when M. has checked them for me.
>>
>> Andy
>> ------------------------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> Hegel for Social Movements [brill.com]
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!St0ZG0_KDAbW0pB4x8rPtZi_5fqPmB7qfSkLqfcUBE2r10cBdRUcVtsG1YtzTcSXHn8n3g$>
>> Home Page [ethicalpolitics.org]
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!St0ZG0_KDAbW0pB4x8rPtZi_5fqPmB7qfSkLqfcUBE2r10cBdRUcVtsG1YtzTcTRmdMdrQ$>
>> On 23/04/2020 11:21 am, Andy Blunden wrote:
>>
>> Anthony, I mainly rely on the ABC (the Australian Broadcasting
>> Corporation), widely accepted as the most trusted source of news and
>> analysis in Australia, run by professional journalists, and independent of
>> Rupert Murdoch. The NYT has a pay wall and CNN is not available here.
>>
>> As Alfredo notes, it is no news to anyone here that reality is in the eye
>> of the beholder, and the world's experience with the tolerance of Americans
>> for Trump is the greatest evidence of this truism one could ask for.
>>
>> My perceptions are conditioned by living in a country which had its first
>> cases about the same time as America and we were in an exponential rise
>> doubling every 3.5 days, like New York, in early March, but wonder or
>> wonders our Prime Minister, who is one of the handful of Trump-admirers in
>> Australian politics - changed!! Apart from some rather vindicative
>> exclusions of foreign workers and casuals from the economic survival
>> package, he has given ideal leadership, possibly because he immediately
>> created a new body called the "National Cabinet" which included all the
>> state Premiers (majority Labor) and collaborated with stakeholders rather
>> than legislating or issuing orders. All decisions have been made
>> collaboratively and in public. The result was that trust in government has
>> been magically restored and we are down to *single figures* of new cases
>> per day. Our hospitals are quiet places.
>>
>> It is an open question whether Scott Morrison will "win" the next
>> election; that will depend on how he acts as restrictions are lifted, I
>> imagine, but that is absolutely the last criterion on which he will be
>> judged by the Australian people and history. (c.f. Winston Churchill).
>>
>> When I have made errors in judgment over the past months, it has always
>> been my consistent underestimation of the tolerance of Americans for lies
>> and stupidity. But that will not stop me from continuing to make the same
>> mistake and remaining optimistic for the future. Though I agree with Mike:
>> there will be suffering.
>>
>> Andy
>> ------------------------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> Hegel for Social Movements [brill.com]
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!UdbPxUu2xrRvkqJFMkhqvGcbnH0KIgpgfOlvzVVzRHnIO0tF08x45tk0WNZyheKsosRa4Q$>
>> Home Page [ethicalpolitics.org]
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!UdbPxUu2xrRvkqJFMkhqvGcbnH0KIgpgfOlvzVVzRHnIO0tF08x45tk0WNZyheIJtVMF7w$>
>> On 23/04/2020 4:02 am, Anthony Barra wrote:
>>
>> Andy,
>>
>> Unless someone beats me to it, I will annotate this article when time
>> allows -- not as a fact-check or correction, but from an occluded view.
>>
>> Thank you for writing it; it is an excellent answer to the question,
>> "what might the view from abroad look like, if reliant primarily on the *New
>> York Times* and *CNN?*" (i.e., similar to the view domestically, under
>> same conditions)
>>
>> This is not an insult nor critique -- as you know from our offline
>> exchanges. It just is what it is; I have my blind spots too (we are all
>> human).
>>
>> Cheers ~
>> Anthony
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 7:33 AM Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:
>>
>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/pdfs/American-Century.pdf__;!!Mih3wA!WsrhewbxozlrKUNF5_hhkiThvufzfV3qtW2HK-Mnq5OUof3sg4G8DA-XhczxT18upDSHUA$ 
>>> [ethicalpolitics.org]
>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/pdfs/American-Century.pdf__;!!Mih3wA!RX_kT308fV5J979vU0HnZwn3N_ILxa76WV811I3K7Q1lByCHw_H-2IpA6g71m_ZdQvTjgA$>
>>>
>>> Andy
>>> --
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>> Hegel for Social Movements [brill.com]
>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!RX_kT308fV5J979vU0HnZwn3N_ILxa76WV811I3K7Q1lByCHw_H-2IpA6g71m_bmjhN_kw$>
>>> Home Page [ethicalpolitics.org]
>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!RX_kT308fV5J979vU0HnZwn3N_ILxa76WV811I3K7Q1lByCHw_H-2IpA6g71m_aKuyy5Zw$>
>>>
>>
>
> --
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