[lbo-talk] On the Limits of Rhetoric

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Nov 29 09:05:30 PST 2004


Carrol wrote:
>What the snipers your [Stannard's] post don't realize (or perhaps
>can't realize) is that much of the writing they _do_ admire is done
>by writers/scholars who owe a good deal to the "difficult" writers
>the snipers get so upset with. Behind every triumphantly clear and
>persuasive work is a huge pile of dull, often wrongheaded,
>"difficult" writing. You can't have the former without the latter.
>The complaints at difficult writing resemble someone who loves
>beefsteak complaining about the acreage devoted to the raising of
>corn and soybeans.

A piece of writing (especially the sort that is useful to organizers on the left), like a piece of scientific research, may seem like a product of private and individual labor, but it is a fruit of social and collective labor.


>My focus was neither analysis of ideology nor rhetorical analysis as
>such but consideration of the special problem facing left organizing
>of _creating_ an audience

Global justice and anti-war movements in recent years expanded the audience of publications on the broadly defined left -- from _The Nation_ to _CounterPunch_ to _Monthly Review_. No activism, no readership.

Brian wrote:
>I would argue that to create social change there needs to be a vital
>public discourse.

One of the reasons we should oppose the domination of the two parties of the ruling class is that they both contribute to the dumbing down of public discourse:

<blockquote>"Tomorrow, when you get back to work, work hard like you always have. But we've been warned. We've been warned there are evil people in this world. We've been warned so vividly," Bush said. "And we'll be alert. Your government is alert. The governors and mayors are alert that evil folks still lurk out there. As I said yesterday, people have declared war on America and they have made a terrible mistake."

"My administration has a job to do and we're going to do it. We will rid the world of the evil-doers," he said. (Manuel Perez-Rivas, "Bush Vows to Rid the World of 'Evil-doers,'" <a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/gen.bush.terrorism/">September 16, 2001<a/>)</blockquote>

<blockquote>"Let me make this very clear," Bush said in Toledo, Ohio. "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I'm sure Senator Kerry agrees with this."

Kerry, in Florida, echoed that "we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists." He went on: "They are barbarians, and I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period." ("Bush, Kerry Vow to Hunt Down Bin Laden," <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-10-29-candidates-bin-laden_x.htm">October 29, 2004</a>)</blockquote>

Doh! -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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