I pointed out a straw man, because what you wrote fit its definition.
At 11:08 AM -0400 5/24/02, Doug Henwood wrote:
>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
People seldom -- perhaps never -- get involved in political actions on the basis of having listened to arguments alone, however truthful and eloquent they may be. You get involved in political actions, first because objective conditions (that oppress you and/or those about whom you care) have come to outrage you, motivating you to say, "Ya Basta"; once you become involved in political actions, then you begin to search for intellectual resources (writings as well as human beings) that can arm you with weapons of criticism.
That objective conditions -- grievances as well as personal attachments arising from ensembles of social relations -- must precede thoughts is Historical Materialism 101. In short, the unconvinced may become convinced, but what convinces them is not free-floating arguments but outrage that has yet to rise to an articulate criticism.
Let's learn from great intellectuals and organizers of one of the oldest social movements -- Christianity:
***** A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
(Luke 8:5-8) ***** -- Yoshie
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