Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens responds to critics

[kelley]

At 08:15 AM 10/1/01 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:

>>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


does anyone psychoanalyze the masterminds of our war machine? these guys 
planned this out, just like "our" guys do. they didn't do anything ghastly, 
they were waging war on us for reasons that are just as legitimate as the 
way "our" guys have waged war on others.

as you know, doug, i generally agree that the refusal to consider 
micro-level psychological/psychoanalytical/social psychological factors is 
a problem.  i do, mainly because i think it's not at all consistent with 
historical materialism to do otherwise, an argument that has been made well 
by Roy Bhaskar who has pointed out that those who do not are merely 
dialectical and espouse theories that are ahistorical.

i just don't see why it's particularly important wrt the specific case of 
the hijackers.

kelley