An American Fusion: Recent Comments

Comment on The Structure of Immigrant Revolutions

john — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:04:04 GMT

nice to see Randolph Bourne get a mention...

for a related piece on how 'mindset prisons' lead to the ones with real bars, see:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175215/tomgram%3A_michelle_alexander%2C_the_age_of_obama_as_a_racial_nightmare/

Comment on Free Markets and Free Trade: Two Dangerous Illusions

Share Trading — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:37:09 GMT

I agree that free market and free trade are ultimately illusory,they are like our concepts of time, purely man-made.

Comment on Sociology as Immediate Power to the People

john — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:50:34 GMT

jackpot question, tejano.

I think we need to study historic scenarios in which thought became revolutionized (i.e., examples of human behavior in motion), and seek to create conditions conducive to such change... not easy, and always necessary to abandon our own illusions.

Comment on Some Senior Citizen Patriots Need a Spanking

john — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:27:36 GMT

Professor, your estimate of 21% "defense" spending is way too low, and right off the pentagon's wire. instead, for a dose of truth, see: http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

The only sane health care is single payer, which can be simply sold to the public as improved medicare for all - not the subsidy of the health insurance industry that Obama wants. Obama's cynical manipulation of the people who put hope in him is breathtakingly appalling.

Comment on Ironic: The Odious 1924 Immigration Act and Its Delightful 2010 Consequences

Tejano — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:58:56 GMT

Awesome! The "us versus them" social-psychological dynamics continue to riddle our societies. To belief on the existence of a 'truly pure' groups (exp. real Americas) brings great comfort to those who feel disadvantaged. Fear is powerful force--it can even twist truth and fuel myth into a reality...

Comment on Should President Obama Be Black?

Tejano — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:39:21 GMT

Cool piece:) I'm glad an academic had the guts to say it: Our president is multiracial. I agree with John that Obama as an agent of change is an illusion. John is correct on pointing out that no new narrative was introduced. This is why O could only opt (as in his personal life) to identify as either black or white. But, we do agree: O is non-white. This raises that old question: what does it mean to be "black American"?

Comment on Sociology as Immediate Power to the People

Tejano — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:26:44 GMT

Great piece! I do have a question. If the power of constructing reality is in the hands of all people and we can choose to walk away from reification, what gives you any confidence that most will abandon their bigoted ways an opt for a more progressive view of our 'reality'? Most highly trained USA race scholars have failed to imbrace anything beyond the reified dichotomy. What hope can we have for those with less interest and training?

Comment on Tag Words, Political Correctness and Social Change

john — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:07:01 GMT

"political correctness" had its heyday before it was so-called: 'fireman' and 'policeman' each asserted a political position, mystified as a natural state, and certainly not socially constructed.

Agreed on the need to use the power of words to challenge: let's begin by demystifying a phrase like 'mass murder' or the word 'torture' and use them where appropriate. Maybe then we'll stop electing torturers and mass murderers as our leaders?

Comment on Free Markets and Free Trade: Two Dangerous Illusions

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Comment on Should President Obama Be Black?

john — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:47:41 GMT

Your attack on the idea of race itself, which imprisons the ways we think, is well made. In my view, people learn narratives of the human experience, including race, into which new knowledge is fitted. This is the strength and the weakness of the human brain. Very hard to break false narratives once they are learned, for some harder than others.

But your disappointment with Obama is not warranted. Obama may have been "lauded as an agent of change," but he clearly wasn't if you stopped to consider. He challenged no narrative.

Time to step outside the prison cell of the mind and abandon illusions - illusions like race, or like believing that Democratic neo-liberals are on our side.