Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> This war may or may not produce such an outcome, as it
> may or may not be long & costly. We can't rule out such a
> possibility, though, so leftists had better be prepared for it,
> unless they are content to let the Right take advantage of it (as
> they are doing now).
>
I suppose one way to define opportunism is the conviction that right now, this minute, is REALITY. Thus the reality of the opportunist is already the dead past by the time his/her words are heard or his/her action takes effect.
Or as a friend of mine in the '60s put it, Opportunism is seldom opportune.
Most people who live in a parliamentary democracy have their minds so permeated by the demands of electoral politics that they have a hard time realizing that influence for a day or a month is more or less useless in the building of mass movements. You need not merely to win the assent of your listener; you need to win her commitment to reach others over a long run.
Adherents to a mass movement are gained through individual conversation, not through reaching people en masse. I knew this from personal experience and discussion with others over the years but was happy to find out from Chip that formal research bore me out.
Carrol