On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Dennis wrote:
> Just saw a video of Chomsky speaking about the Middle East (from
> December), and in the Q&A he was verbally attacked by a Spart, who was
> then voted out of the auditorium. Chomsky said that the Sparts do this
> all the time, "breaking up meetings" as he put it, and he was quite
> rough on the guy, who exited yelling, "You manufacture your own
> consent!"
>
> Doug, you follow the Sparts. What's with this?
They are what are used to be known as "worsers" -- the closer your position is to being mine, which actually being mine, the worse it is.
25 years ago I saw my first Spart at a talk by Michael Harrington. The guy stood and up seemed have mastered some sort circular breathing technique that allowed him to yell for 5 minutes without taking a break. Eventually he got shouted down and left. And Michael Harrington, who never showed a trace of anger during the tirade, said "I have this vision. Someday, I'm going to be the first Socialist on the moon. And after I take my small step, and turn to the camera, someone will come out from behind a rock and say "I'm from the Spartacist League . . . "
So I get the impression this has been their standard tactic for a nigh on a half century. Poor Noam, who talks even more than Harrington did, has probably seen thousands of them by now. I can't really blame him for losing his temper.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com