Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> >I happen, along with Justin, to oppose _any_ action by the U.S. beyond
> >its own borders on this. But let it be remembered that it was Doug, not
> >some dogmatic leninist, who introduced the phrase in this context.
> >
> >During the Vietnam war...
>
> What makes this different from Vietnam and everything else we know is
> that this was an attack on the U.S., not a U.S. imperial action
> abroad. Certainly it happened because of imperial behavior, but the
> fact that it happened here means that people experience it much more
> viscerally. Maybe I'm biased since it happened about 5 miles from
> where I'm sitting.
>
There was an article in NLR just a few years ago that I didn't read very carefully or completely, but it was tracing a tradition in ethical theory that dealt with the importance for moral perception of the distance of the people involved. Charles Dickens of course turned that into a fundamental principle. In _Bleak House_ Jarndyce is infinitely compassionate with everyone with whom he comes in direct contact, infinitely indifferent to everyone who is around the corner. And the only people who care for _anyone_ outside their immediate acquaintance are presented as idiots or worse -- Mrs. Pardiggle, Mrs. Jellyby, etc etc etc.
Carrol