Robert Fisk

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Gordon Fitch wrote:
>
>>  I suppose Fisk's work is damaging to the repute of the imperial
>>  enterprise, therefore Fisk must be neutralized; but a detailed
>>  attack on his work would involve the further exposition of
>>  the very material which renders it offensive.  Therefore, it
>>  is preferable to seize on a purely rhetorical offense, to wit,
>>  the excessive use of a common hyperbole ("If I was him Ida ...")
>
>Can't speak for Brad or Thomas, but your attempt at pop psychology fails
>to accurately explain my motives.  They're a bit more benign: I enjoy
>parsing language.
>
>You're also incorrect about his "rhetorical offense"
>consisting of "the excessive use of a common hyperbole."  There are at
>least two different senses of the proposition, "If I was in his shoes..."
>One of them is a substanitive endorsement of the act.  For example, if a
>poor man steals medicine to save the life of his wife, a man of greater
>means might say that he would've done the same in the other's shoes.  In
>this sense the statement can be seen as making the case for a set of
>situational ethics like consequentialism or relativism.  If this is what
>Fisk was getting at, it would mean that he thought his beating was good in
>some manner.  We've already discussed the weaker and more trivial form of
>the proposition (i.e. if I were in their shoes I would've done all that
>being in their shoes leads one to do).
>
>-- Luke

Why do a disproportionate number of blacks enlist in the U.S. 
military?  Why would anyone?  Why would anyone consent to fly a B-52 
and drop bombs?  Why do a disproportionate number of blacks get 
caught in the U.S. criminal justice system?  Why did cops beat up 
Rodney King?  Why did the cops get acquitted?  Why did the L.A. 
uprising happen?  Why did Reginald Denney get beat up?  Why do 
capitalists usually resist union organizing?  Why do some workers 
join unions but not others?  Why do some workers scab when others are 
on strike?  Why does a larger proportion of workers get unionized at 
some point in history than at other points?  Ethics has only a 
marginal role (if any at all) in explaining such phenomena....
-- 
Yoshie

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