>>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>>Subject: Re: Note to the "ladder of force left"
>>Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:16:58 -0400
>>
>>>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>I've been mugged by a black man, but I'm against the "war on
>>>>crimes," racial profiling, etc.
>>
>>That's not a very good analogy. Street crimes have social causes, but
>>they're individual acts. There's no organized group of muggers
>>issuing threats of mass murder.
>
>
>Sorry, I don't follow. Terrorist crimes don't have social causes?
>Only crimes organized by n < 2 people have social causes? Those
>threatening mass murder don't have social causes? Would you say
>Palestinian terrorist acts did not have social causes?
Of course terrorist crimes have social causes. To be clearer, I should have written, "Street crimes, like terrorism, have social causes, but they're individual acts." Terrorism is explicitly political; you could argue that street crimes are political, too - they're committed almost entirely by poor young men with a less than bright future - but they're only implicitly so.
Doug