Do Everythinger

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>At 4:28 PM -0600 4/6/02, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>>This is roughly my basis for claiming for many years that persuasion
>>only works on those who have already (on some random basis) become
>>engaged in activity that presupposes agreement with the position one
>>wants to convey to them. One can't even _listen_ to descriptions of u.s.
>>imperialism until one has already in one way or another become involved
>>in activity that is objectively anti-imperialist. (And there is _no_
>>general formula for becoming involved in such activity: it is contingent
>>and, for all practical purposes, random for each individual who gets
>>involved in such activity.)
>>
>>I'm back to what has been more or less central to everything I've
>>written on maillists for five years. Arguments have to be directed at
>>those who already accept them but don't know they do. Put otherwise, the
>>first task of agitation or organizing is not in forming a persuasive
>>message; it is in creating an action which involves people before they
>>know why they are involved.
>
>So you can't influence the government and can't persuade the 
>unconvinced. Why fucking bother then?
>
>Doug

Let's avoid a Straw Man.

Cf.  The definition of Straw Man: "The author attacks an argument 
which is different from, and usually weaker than, the opposition's 
best argument" (@ 
<http://www.intrepidsoftware.com/fallacy/straw.htm>).
-- 
Yoshie

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