In this case, what I offered seems kind of obvious and somewhat comical; here's an ardent leftist, Palmer, who is attacking Ellen Willis, saying she needs to see a shrink and to stop "laying her trip on the Left," and he is clearly unaware that she is dead. He doesn't read LBO, nor the Times, nor the Nation on-line, and doesn't know a soul who might have told him in conversation or email that he is urging a dead person to see a shrink. I mean, it goes against everything Stanley Milgram showed in this "Small World" experiments: there are far more than six degrees of separation between this leftist and a world that knows that Ellen Willis is dead. (Following Milgram's results, Palmer is further away from Ellis's world than an Iowa farmer is from a Harvard professor.)
All this is suggestive of a larger point that I have been making -- the distance from feminist reality of people like Palmer and many others on this list. I mean, who would have to die for Palmer to notice it? We could have an experiment: suppose, I hope not, Gloria Steinem died: how long would it take for Palmer to get the news? And how would this compare with the rapidity that he learned of the death of some minor Marxist?
So, Doug, instead of addressing your own personal narrative -- parking charges for high horses etc. , "discourse," etc. -- do you have anything to say about the above substance? I thought you were into social science.
Jesse Lemisch
---- Original Message ----
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Cc: Subject: Re: Liberal agony - how to have my cake and eat it too. Re: [lbo- talk] IsThere Still a Jewish Question? by Ellen Willis Date: Sat, November 11, 2006, 23:21:00
On Nov 11, 2006, at 6:49 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote:
> The atmosphere on LBO is unbelievable. Two days after feminist Ellen
> Willis's death, much discussed and disputed here, with obits in the
> Times,
> Nation on-line, and elswhere, Steve Palmer disagrees with her views on
> anti-semitism (as I do), calls her "paranoid," and "urge]s] her to
> seek
> professional psychiatric assistance instead of laying her trip on
> the Left."
>> From the grave? Apparently, though he is clearly some kind of a
>> leftist,
> what happens in the world of feminism is for him another world.
> And, so far
> as I can tell, nobody on LBO has said a word about this four hours
> later.
> What can people be thinking? If we just keep quiet, maybe that foul
> Jesse
> won't notice this, which seems to confirm so much of what he has been
> saying?
Hey it's been a lot longer than four hours, and I'm waiting for all that outrage from the feminist lists you promised!
I was working all afternoon, then met some people for dinner, so I wasn't available to police the discourse. But of course Jesse's on the beat, ready to denounce what he considers inappropriate. I thought Steve Palmer's suggestion was ill-advised, but I'm guessing most people just let it pass, as I would have, had I noticed it 9 hours ago.
Really, Jesse, where *do* you park that high horse? You live in Manhattan, so it'd probably run you $400-500/mo, unless you parked it in Jersey, which would be impractical considering how often you mount it. You'd be spending most of time on the GW Bridge if you did. Chill, man. You're not the discourse police.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk