Yoshie,
Your point below is a good one. It is the institutional settings and perspectives that people internalize as their own or they're out on the street that is important. Not the individuals themselves.
The best definition of what an expert is that I ever heard was by Kissenger himself. This is from memory so this won't be exact, but good old Hank said something like this in describing what an expert is: One who is able to put forth the views of the powerful.
It was something like that...he was right..-Tony
----- Original Message ----- From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 2:19 PM Subject: Re: The Mystery of Hitchens's Mind (was: Re: Bush Names Kissinger toHead 9/11 Probe)
> >Anthony Tothe:
> >> I agree with both comments below...I always found Hitchens almost
> >> unreadable. He always wants us to see how smart he is. One of the
reasons
> >> I use to read his Nation column was to just see how many words he used
that
> >> I did know. I frankly hate that...the political world is not so
complex
> >> that it can't be explained in plain simple English. Hitch is not
alone in
> >> this...many politicos write in such a way that only other members of
their
> >> class can decipher what the hell they are trying to say. Maybe
"Empire"
> >> being the most recent and prime example.
> >
> >In the case of Hitchens, I don't believe there's anything to
> >decipher. Of course, I haven't read the complete _oeuvre_.
> >The thought of focusing on someone as odious as Henry Kissinger
> >for the length of a whole book is beyond my imagination, so
> >something must be said for Hitchens's fortitude even if he
> >is ideologically compromised.
> >
> >-- Gordon
>
> What makes me wonder is why anyone should focus on Henry Kissinger,
> rather than the social relations that demand the sort of work he did.
> It is not as though he is the only US secretary of state who is
> guilty of enforcing the rule of the empire either.
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Calendar of Events in Columbus:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
> * Anti-War Activist Resources:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
>