Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens responds to critics

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Oct 1 05:15:46 PDT 2001


Ted Winslow wrote:


>Yoshie wrote:
>
>> It is possible that the terrorists who committed the 9/11 bombings
>> had "relations in infancy and childhood" that played "a crucial role
>> in the development of this [terrorist?] mentality [sic]." However,
>> even if such were really the case (which would be impossible to prove
>> or disprove, in my view), it would still make sense politically for
>> anti-war activists to focus only on the causes of terrorism that
>> could become targets of collective political actions. I don't think
>> it's necessary for an anti-war teach-in to include tips on
>> psychoanalytically better parenting.
>
>That's true. It might be a good idea to avoid substituting contempt for
>argument though.

All of life isn't a teach-in. Don't we have an interest in understanding why people do ghastly things?

Doug



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