>>> Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> 06/01/99 12:48PM >>>
. . . Louis is too ornery and Doug is too principled. And those
are
good things. >
> CB: These are false innuendos about the relationship between
facts and revolution. Reality and the facts are radical. The
status quo is preserved by falsehoods, non-facts. >
My statement went to the relationship between revolutionaries and facts, not to revolution per se. And then only to certain revolutionaries. My evidence is LP (and others) continuous harvesting of one-sided, highly impeachable information re: the Balkans. No objective-minded person can fail to see this, whatever their stance on the bombing.
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CB: "No objective person " is very overbroad and inaccurate because of that. It is also self-serving and biased.
I, an objective person , do not agree with you that Louis's discussion of that conflict are flawed signficantly in the way you say.
Your non-partisan ,alleged objectivity is an illusion.
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> Nor do individual thinkers have some general advantage over
collectives, such as hard-line communist cadre , in stubborness,
principledness or stubborn adherence to principle. Max offers no
facts to support his
assertion of a self-congratulatory , academic stereotype. >
Collectives is a little vague; we've got some coop natural foods stores down here. They could be construed as collectives but would not fall under the scope of my statement. Real Communist cadre groups are a whole different matter.
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CB: Yes, speaking overbroadly, you sort of contrasted Doug Henwood and Louis Proyect , even though they are opponents right now, as at least individuals unlike some non-individual or non-indivdualist in a hard-line communist party as cadre. Even Louis is better than that, "saith" Max. to paraphrase your earlier post.
There are a lot of really existing natural food individualists and other individuals too. So the fact that collectivity is a form of organization in other than hard line communist parties (with cadre) is not that clever of a joke, jokster Max. "Two heads are better than one" is everywhere, like the ghost of communism.
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The plain fact is that if you are in such a group, bullshit is one of the daily dietary requirements, and adherence to principle is carefully rationed.
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CB: But bullshit as part of the daily diet is clearly part of academic, liberal intellectual thought, n'est-ce pas ? And opportunism is rife among those throwing stones at the bullshitting, unprincipled communist party , hardcore, cadre, zealots, pretty much.
Max: This has nothing to do with academics or non-academics, nor with any claim to principle by myself.
You can't prove something like this. You can either live it or read about it. Reading is a lot easier. I recommend "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. Or Hemingway on the Spanish civil war. And if you haven't lived it and don't believe what you read, you wouldn't know.
Peace and power to the People, brother,
Charles Brown