Max Sawicky wrote:
> I agree with you about hagiography when it's shallow
> (i.e., G. Bush as a great leader), but not when it goes
> to important, observable things, like competence, commitment,
> and knowledge.
Commitment visible? One has to temper one's demands that commitment be observable -- just because it is so important, particularly in radical politics where commitment might mean taking considerable risks. It is this question of commitment (i.e., dependability in some concretely unforseeable but abstractly probable situation) that lurks behind some of the more tense debates on this list. Can one who believes X be depended on to help one escape the police? Should one help someone who believes Y escape the police? What are the probabilities of a Weatherman fleeing the police being, in fact, a police agent? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Carrol