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Nope. There is a difference between saying that one understands the sources of murderous, indiscriminate rage and saying that one would join in such murderous, indiscriminate rage. To say that if one were in their shoes one would join the lynch mob--one would chase innocent strangers with intent to beat and possibly kill them because of the color of their skin--is to say something extraordinary about one's own personality and moral identity. Brad DeLong
and
A lynch mob chases an innocent man, eager to beat and possibly kill him not because of anything he has done but because of the color of his skin. One can say that one understands the sources of their fear and rage. One can regret the upbringing that has given them such a--racist--way of responding to the world. No matter how much literary and sociological imagination one has, only a murderous racist can say that in their place one would join the lynch mob.
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Which is fair enough. But Brad, perhaps if we try a less morally repugnant leap of the literary and sociological imagination .....
could you possibly imagine yourself in the shoes of a mild-mannered Afghan economics professor, suggesting to comrades on an Afghan mailing list, that to vigorously condemn the gang that beat up Fisk was the equivalent of knocking on the doors of the victims of American bombing and saying that nothing should be done because all of Afghanistan's problems were the Taliban's fault?
dd
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