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Cornel West and Your opinion
So, recently Cornel West came out and went on a tirade of sorts, after Obama, saying he was the "Black face of the American empire," which I have no problem with, and calling out the current administration on some other things as well. Not too long ago, West again came out, again after Obama, calling him nothing more than a "brown faced Clinton", and pointing out some other flaws that a lot of Liberals have in viewing Obama, like that he's a "Progressive" and all that other stuff you've probably heard time and time again, from the Liberal POV. If you didn't know, West got a lot of heat from Liberals, when he came out with the "brown faced Clinton" tagline, calling West things like a "racist" and "Republican/Tea Party stooge", etc. etc. Same with this most recent calling out as well.
But it started to get me thinking, how all of you view West, and what he's said in the past, present and what he's done, actively, like when he went and supported OWS, giving a speech (which I can't remember at the moment, what it was all about,) etc.
And for those of you who aren't familiar with Cornel West, here's his Wikipedia page, just to get an idea of the man. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West#Politics
Personally I like West, and some of what he says. I wouldn't define him as "revolutionary" or anything like that, I dont' think I've heard him ever say he was a proponent of a revolution, but I think when he does speak up, he brings up good points and examples of how the current system in the US, is faulty and just over all, bad. I also like him because when he does speak, he brings out into the light, how similar Democrats/Liberals and Republicans/Tea Partiers are to each other, when their ideas are confronted so blatantly.
So what are all your thoughts on West?
"We are free, truly free, when we don't need to rent our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift a piece of bread to our mouths."
- Ricardo Flores Magón
"I am resolved to struggle against everything and everybody."
- Emiliano Zapata
I like him, I'm reading his books sooner or later.
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." (Fredrick Douglass)
´We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.´ (Malcolm X)
´Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party — though they are quite numerous — is no freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.´ (Rosa Luxemburg)
While he's not a revolutionary in the sense that he wants to completely abolish capitalism root and branch, he is a fiery, articulate crusader for justice with a heart of gold, and more lust for life than most twenty year olds you meet these days. I take my hat off to him.
Let me guess. A fedora.
Professor West was out there getting arrested in N.Y.C. during the Occupy movement. He is a very good man.
Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.
---- Mark Twain
Probably not, Cornel West isn't an anti-theist
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
Close. A beanie. LOL.
“[A] great embarrassing fact… haunts all attempts to represent the market as the highest form of human freedom: that historically, impersonal, commercial markets originate in THEFT.”
― David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years
i can never tell if people (let's be fair, liberals) who say shit like this are being disingenuous, or if they're actually this confused
i've heard similar attacks on bruce a. dixon (of black agenda report) for his criticisms of obama (heaven forfend) and it's just like- are you lost? do you even know where you are right now?
ETA actually on topic: i put west in that category with chomsky and zinn that's like 'gateway writers for liberals to discover that the left exists'. so his work can be useful in that respect, but i wouldn't consider any of these guys majorly helpful from a marxist perspective (or chomsky from an anarchist one)
Cornel West is great. He's one of my intellectual heroes -- way better than Chomsky -- dude's got flavour -- I love his interviews with Mumia -- the Cornel West reader is pretty good. Always been curious to read his first book, which was his doctoral thesis on American pragmatism.
I really love how he's always working the everyday little things into the big picture and back again. His thought is poetic. And plain.
"we're born in the funk
heidegerr didn't talk about corpses
im a bloozman in the whirled of ideas": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfD3X3f5C_w
Another reason to love this man...
Cornel West Arrested In Ferguson
The Huffington Post | By Paige Lavender & Mariah Stewart
Posted: 10/13/2014 1:12 pm EDT Updated: 10/13/2014 11:02 pm EDT
Author and activist Cornel West was arrested while demonstrating in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday.
West was in Ferguson as part of the "Ferguson October" rally, which has been attended by over 1,000 protesters.
Journalists in Ferguson tweeted photos of the incident Monday afternoon:
Dr. Cornell West arrested. #ferguson pic.twitter.com/HwlXPLNOqc
— Craig Cheatham (@CheathamKMOV) October 13, 2014
#cornellwest arrested and in police van now in act of civil disobedience #moralmonday #fergusonoctober pic.twitter.com/vpAhuRjpBT
— Shadi Rahimi (@shadirahimi) October 13, 2014
West had joined peaceful demonstrations at St. Louis University on Sunday night. Hours earlier, during a large mass protest service, West said that he came to get arrested.
“It’s a beautiful thing to see people on fire for justice, but I didn’t come here to give a speech,” West said during a discussion on Sunday night. “I came here to go to jail.”
The guy is awesome.
I wish death on everyone who works for the Department for Work and Pensions.
He has some good writings at the very least, and I appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that he brings.
FKA Chomsssssssky, Skwisgaar, The Employer Destroyer, skybutton
I got to meet and talk to West a few years ago at a lecture. He seemed to hold legitimately anti-capitalist views, but his brand of socialism sounded a more like radical social democracy more than anything else.
Nevertheless he's a brilliant mind and has a lot of great things to say.
