[lbo-talk] a teacher in trouble and the union

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat Mar 4 12:43:44 PST 2006


Carrol Cox wrote:


>I think the word "criticism" (as a political term) is regularly misused
>on this list, and is being misused here. Criticism in Labor Notes is
>FROM THE INSIDE, while the tone of alleged criticism on this list always
>has the tone of external carping. It's only this morning that I finally
>found the word to describe that tone: Snobbery. "I am not as others are;
>I'm above that; I'm not part of 'That Left Out There' or 'That Union
>Movement Out THere.' I'm independent."

No, snobbery is Vita Sackville-West saying that the workers aren't as ugly as they might be.

How broadly applicable is this law? Do you have to be an imperialist to criticize US imperialism? Do you have to be in the Marines to criticize the flattening of Fallujah? Can I, as an ex-Catholic, criticize Rome's position on abortion and extramarital sex, or do I have to be a practicing Catholic? Or does the principle apply only when the Commissar of the Cornfields says it does?

Doug



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