<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.100" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <P>Doug wrote (Re: Sociology and Explanations):</P> <P><EM>All of life isn't a teach-in. Don't we have an interest in <BR>understanding why people do ghastly things? </EM></P> <P>Yes, I think we do, and not just out of idle curiosity. Deleuze and Guattari asked the question a long time ago, in Anti-Oedipus: How does desire become the desire for death? What makes people desire their own repression, up to and including death? This along with some nice pages apropos Fanon, discussions of object relations as "direct investment of the social field" and other such matters. It all seems so long ago to me now, but I always thought some answers lay in that direction (i.e./e.g Theweleit's "Male Fantasies", and maybe some of Brian Massumi's work).</P> <P>That said, I will now wait for the usual roaring silence, or to be pummeled senseless by the usual gang of wits anxious to prove their superior chops by informing me how such and such has been discredited or is no longer in fashion, and that I need to go back to driving the fork truck and let the REAL smart people do the thinkin'.</P> <P>But a lead toward better thinking would be preferable.</P> <P>pkg<BR></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>