[lbo-talk] What caused the bombers to bomb?

[snitsnat]

At 01:38 PM 7/16/2005, James Heartfield wrote:
>What caused the bombings? The bombers. Did Tony Blair do it? No. He had a 
>cast-iron alibi, being in Gleneagles, signing the G8 agreement at the time.
>
>Sociology can explain social trends, but the London bombings are too 
>unique an event to yield to a sociological explanation. In statistical 
>terms, Britain's Muslims are not bombers. Any sociological investigation 
>would have to explain their overwhelmingly peaceable and law-abiding nature.


:) one of my mentors, who worked for the Washington post before David 
Reisman recruited him to Harvard, said that he went into sociology to find 
out how 5 children of a working class Irish couple in a small city -- who 
ostensibly had a very similar upbringing, same teachers, same friends, same 
neighborhood-- could all turn out to be so incredibly different: one a 
leftist priest, another a junkie who died of AIDS, another gay, another a 
millionaire, another a chemist, and the other a sociologist.

IOW, you have a very narrow understanding of the range of sociological 
theory and what it can tell us.

Kelley

"Finish your beer. There are sober kids in India."

                        -- rwmartin