Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
>
> On 3/5/06, Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
>
> uh oh. is this enough to suspect a pattern? i've not read deutscher,
> so i've got nothing at all to contribute on the topic, but i have
> always wondered about the conversion factor in left political
> thinking: you know, the idea of "radicalization". i know i'm supposed
> to be the great apologist for religion, but it always weirded me out
> that so many people i organized with had such a fundamentally
> *religious* understanding of their radical atheist pro-union politics.
This occurred to me over 35 years ago, and to the best of my memory I have _never_ used the word "convert" in a political context, even if avoiding it led to awkward sentence rhythms. I speak of _recruiting_ to left political practice, not "converting" to the left (or to marxism). My post the other day on irrelevance of praising marxism was part of this conscious avoidance of religiosity in politics (though that was a pretty awkwardly written post).
> it always struck me as precarious, and therefore impractical (so, to
> "convert" someone to leftist politics would be, in my view, bad
> organizing),
I completely agree.
Carrol