why you gotta piss on the unity parade?

solarus, you hit on several key points, including the fallacy of a global (race-based unity). race is important to white folks, and its important to us. probably much less so to other peoples who tend to view their exploitation by europeans as more of an issue of nationalism.

the biggest point you hit on, though, is the underlying assumptions for any such universalism: positive or negative. are we uniting against something or for something.

unity against something is only as lasting and cohesive and pervasive as what you're fighting. you need something on a scale of hitler (both in terms of evil and obviousness) to spark that type of unity, and even then once the evil is gone, everyone will go their separate ways. sci-fi writers know that, which is why the laziest of them are apt to posit some type of 'alien' attack as a catalyst for one world government.

unity for something is probably the preferred approach, but the challenge is determining what we all want. lowest common denominator unification. there have been attempts, like "the universal rights of the child", and "kyoto", but the problem here is that you will eventually run into conflicting interests and definitions of rights and statuses. can i march alongside the vegetarians eating my ham sammich and shouting power to the rain forest? more typical, what of global aims of supporting the rights of women. on its face, its a grand and noble thing, but in application, it may run in conflict with other rights of cultural self-determination (Taliban, anyone?). i can make the judgement call that the right of women prevails but i will concede that my opinions in that realm are shaped by being raised in a culture dominated by a western-european ethos, no matter how reconstructed i think my african mind is. nahmean?

to acheive such a one-world approach (and i am, ultimately, a one-worlder), we have to start at a level of obvious evils (sounds like the first unity option, right), and unite for a world free of that. its a conundrum. begin with things that are (almost) universally deplored, and work up from there -- no child slavery/prostitution, etc.

mad complicated. i think economics would be a good basis for unity, but if the power is concentrated in the hands of the "haves" who have no vested self-interest in dismantling the status quo, our only option of enacting that unity is via revolution (always outnumbered, always outgunned) or reformation (reliance on the colonial powers to see the innate goodness of a perfectly framed argument for sharing).

arrgh. baby steps, mayne. bringing us back to the malcomist view: how we gonna unite with anybody else when we can't unite within ourselves? intragroup unity is probably more important than intergroup unity for us at this juncture, or else we'll continue having folks brokering deals on our behalf which don't benefit the masses of our people.



peace & blessings,

x.


January is Kool Keith quote month, for lack of anything else:

"I never hearda you stupid, what's your name man??"

"Rappers don't know, I'm out the hospital/
cold buggin' and illin' like Dr. Doolittle"

"I'll chew your ass like monkeys on Wild Kingdom"

"you call yourself GOD, can you make it rain?/
can you tell me now what I'm thinkin' in my brain?"

"under your arms, you're kickin power and musty"

"word to mom, I'm in my own world.../
galaxy raaaaaays... powerful"

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad