In addition there is utter incromprehension, indeed a knd of a a frenzy of confusion of legal standards with historical standards. Aside from the skewing of the legal system against the female complainant, speaking as historian I want to assure you that historians come to reasonable conclusions about causality etc. with less than perfect information. The standards being invoked here would eliminate historical judgement about just about everthing.
This stuff is nohthing more than a tarted up defense of bigotry, very archaic.
Jesse Lemisch
----- Original Message ----- From: "Miles Jackson" <cqmv at pdx.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 1:13 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Feminism and the False Memory Syndrome
>
>
> On Sat, 21 Oct 2006, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > Political repression goes out of control when people make a leap from
> > a fact -- e.g., dangers of covert action exist; crimes of terrorism
> > and rape, including of children, exist; and they can be difficult to
> > prosecute -- to total suspension of skepticism, a radical downgrading
> > of legal and scientific norms, and the conclusion that all accusations
> > of heinous crimes, however lacking in evidence, must be believed.
>
> This bring to mind the recent thread about belief in God. The idea that
> we can "just know things" without evidence, logic, or systematic
> procedures seems to appeal to many people. Let's face it:
> accepting claims based on authority ("God said it, I believe it, that
> settles it") or common sense ("kids would never lie about abuse") is
> much easier than careful and rigorous assessment.
>
> --I'd go so far as to say that this tendency toward "easy" certainty
> is one of the main sources on misery in the world. I think we'd all
> be a lot better off if everyone were less certain about their most
> deeply held beliefs.
>
> Miles
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