sorry

[Gordon Fitch]

> Liza writes:
>> >I just realized I used the word "lameness" in my dismissal of certain left
>>  >magazines. Unfortunate in any context, but given the disability thread,
>>  >quite stupid and insensitive.  I apologize.

Marta writes:
> >  Shows how ingrained it is in the culture doesn't it.
> >  Like racism, it takes a while to root out slurs.

One of my disabled friends, who is anything but self-hating,
uses the term _lame_ to deprecate bad art frequently, so the
word may have different auras for different people; they
might not connect it with disability in the political sense. 

People who actually deride or discriminate against disabled
persons are probably more afraid of them than contemptuous or
insensitive, not that this is any reason to tolerate their
behavior; but it may suggest different tactics -- affirmative
action in preference to hand-wringing and guilt-tripping, for 
instance.

Jacob Conrad:
> Yeah, it does take a while, and it takes an effort.  It means looking at 
> yourself in a mirror, and examining your own heart--and changing your 
> language, and behavior.  It's an effort most people (me included) don't want 
> to undertake, because it's so hard.  Is that one of the reasons why "the 
> left" is unpopular--because "the left" sometimes asks people to do hard 
> things?  Equality is hard.

It should be easy, shouldn't it?  What seems hard to me is
the fear, submission, obedience, self-distrust and self-
loathing which authority attempts to inculcate.  Accordingly
a Left which promotes guilt and sorrow among its own is not
going to get anywhere.  You don't see Marx telling people to
feel guilty in the _Communist_Manifesto_.  No, he tells them
they have nothing to lose but their chains, and a world to
win.

-- Gordon