[lbo-talk] Has the Left Gone Mad?

[Carl Remick]

>From: ravi <gadfly at exitleft.org>
>
>At around 4/8/06 4:57 pm, Joel Schalit wrote:
> >
> > What I think makes many of us uncomfortable is the fact that because
> > there is such a strong and emerging pro-violence consensus within the
> > Western left - Europe, the US, we're increasingly unwilling to even
> > entertain discussing non-violent alternatives to the conflict, or much
> > else for that matter. That aspect of this discussion is really  bad.
>
>Is this emerging? I have been in the West only about 16 years but in all
>that time I have noticed at best a patronizing/condescending attitude
>towards non-violence/pacifism (and at worst a sneering dismissal). I
>hope I just have a wrong impression.

I sincerely hope you have the wrong impression too.  I think no sector of 
the left that fails to have the highest reverence for non-violence/pacifism 
can hope to lead humankind out of its current despair.  Fortune-cookie 
wisdom it may be, but it's true:  If violence is the cure, what is the 
disease?

Carl