Angelus Novus wrote:
>
>
> You and Noam Chomsky can spend the
> next 10,000 years shouting facts at people until
> you're blue in the face. Until you develop an inkling
> of the pull that reified social relationships exercise
> upon human consciousness, your contribution to
> effecting any social change will tend towards null.
I would mostly agree, but still re Chomsky: his facts, as you say, probably don't change many minds, but they are still of great use to those who can selectively use them in other contexts. Facts don't prove anything or persuade anyone, but knowledge too can be empty if it doesn't have facts to embody itself in. And, apropos the discussion of time on pen-l, only a lunatic things he/she can collect all or even more than a small part of "the facts" for him/herself. And this is where the Chomskys of the world become, as has been said, a "national trasure." (I say nothing of the "You" above, not having much interest in such wild maunderings.)
Carrol