When a non-swimmer falls into water, and panics as her lungs fill with
> water, the panic does not cause the drowning.
>
> :-)
That was merely a joke; the serious part was in the preceding paragraph.
A number of things would have caused the drowning, primarily whatever set of social relations put her in the spot where one or another personal trait could have led to her falling in the water. See Lewontin's argument that germs do not cause Tuberculosis in one of his NYRB reviews. The physician reviewed indignntly claimed that he didn't believe that germs caused tuberculosis either. Lewontin more or less called him a liar.
Carrol
Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>
> Justin wrote:
>
> joanna bujes <joanna.bujes at sun.com> wrote:
>
> <<Perhaps there is something about war that is NOT historical but
> mythic/psychological ...something that is separate from evil intent,
> but kicks in when people are put in a schizophrenic position.>>
>
> Now now, you are not allowed to use psychological factors in
> historical explanation. That is not materialist. Just ask Yoshie.
> jks
> Joanna
>
> ----------
>
> Now now. You are grumpy lately Justin. Joanna's statement seems to me a
> perfectly historical, _not_ psychological, proposition. It affirms that
> certain extreme social relations (Kenneth Burke noted that war, looked
> at from a distance, appeared as a special case of cooperation between
> the contending armies) bring out human potentials that don't appear
> under ordinary circumstances.
>
> When a non-swimmer falls into water, and panics as her lungs fill with
> water, the panic does not cause the drowning.
>
> :-)
>
> Carrol
>
> P.S. I think this incorrect usage of "schizophrenic" is irretrievably
> established in language, but in honor of my several friends who suffer
> from schizophrenia I must point out that it reflects a gross
> misunderstanding of schizophrenia (which does not at all involve a
> "split personality" or anything that vaguely approaches be so
> describable).
>
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