Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> >Isn't that a little like polling NYC to find out what people in
> >the U. S. think about the war in Iraq? I know the Gallup people
> >will stress the sample is not representative of all Iraqis, but
> >I suspect this will be reported by lazy journalists as "Iraqi
> >public opinion".
>
> Yes, yes, yes. But you've gotta work with what you've got.
>
Why? I don't have much in the w ay of either skills or materials to build a computer. So should I just say, Well, you've got to work with what you've got and start trying to build one? It seems to me the early Wittgenstein applies here (from memory): Whereof one cannot know, thereof one should not speak.
Just don't try to incorporate guesses about Iraqi "public opinion" into one's thought, because that guarantees that one's thought will be fundamentally corrupt.
Or put it another way. "What we've got" simply doesn't include _any_ information about Iraqi opinion, so working with what we got means not thinking at all about Iraqi opinion.
Carrol