[colinbaker62]

Hi Rudy and thank you for your reply.

And to a degree, I agree with you, when you suggest that there is far too much discussion (intellectual or otherwise) about social phenomena that are often glaringly obvious to the average person in the street. This, of course, is partly the trouble. People like Dr. Watson are all but isolated from mainstream day-to-day living when it comes to the world of survival. Couple this with such people's obvious inability to theoretically transcend the concrete here-and-now in terms of a scientific understanding about social problems born of a class-ridden society, and one has a recipe for crippled thinking with all this implies in the material world.

Watson, in my view, is crippled to the core when it comes to his theories of human existence. It is necessary however, in my opinion, to fundamentally critique such stilted reasoning as advanced by Watson and others, because otherwise, such people would merely laugh off all those who simply ranted and raved about superficial racist comments. I tried to do this by showing that Watson's thinking was at root, a consequence not of a racist mind per se, but of capitalist relations of production.

Your remarks outlining a snapshot of your thoughts of Americans / American life are also very interesting. I think you are not too far off the mark when you argue that sometimes, (political) America, tends to debate the obvious. You suggest one cause of this might be the insular lives led by Americans generally. I think there is undoubtedly some truth in this. I remember a survey not too long ago in which a majority of those Americans polled did not know where Iran or Iraq was. You are right to highlight, among others, the media in its role in keeping people reasonably ill informed (whether they be Americans, British or whatever).


I think I would urge caution however, about labelling Americans per se, as "a nation of violence prone, narcoleptic imbeciles". Or if they are, so too I would suggest, are a majority of British, and French, and Dutch, and German etc....... It is important to realise I think, that changed social circumstances in turn, lead to changed people. Of course, for such change to become possible, many people have to come to a conscious awareness as to the anomalies at work in a given society before radical social change is possible. But should such awareness arise, then anything is potentially possible. In America at the present time, there are many, many brave people (a minority yes, but a significant minority) who have taken a stand for example, and continue to take a stand against American military involvement in Iraq. Similarly, many Americans take a stand against White House ambitions to pursue the Star Wars project. Many Americans campaign against WTO activities in its unfair dealings with African countries, and so on and so forth. If enough people of this kind of mind were to grow in American society, then the dominant ideology, conceptions and so forth would, in turn, radically alter. I suppose what I'm trying to say is the current level of consciousness in America, is no measure of its future potential. Ditto for Britain and any other country for that matter.



Thanks again for your very interesting comments,



Colin