[lbo-talk] Darfur: colonised by 'peacekeepers'

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Aug 3 10:41:20 PDT 2007


Russell:

Woj's scathing rejoinder sounds like the umpteenth rehash of critiques of so-called totalitarianism equating left and right wing 'extremes', which I think date back to some time in the early '30s and were then embellished by people like Karl Popper (The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945) and Hannah Arendt (The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1957).

[WS:] You are right. To me, totalitarianism is totalitarianism, and extremist idiocy is extremist idiocy - no matter in what ideological packaging it is coming. I am not particularly affected by the opinions of academic celebrities on that subject either.

As to the situation in Darfur that you are referring to - I have no opinion on it because I feel that I do not know enough facts to have one. Having said that, however, I generally tend to trust international organizations, especially the UN, more than I trust national governments, and decidedly more than any self-styled radical groups (the latter have practically zero credibility in my book.)

One more thing - is it a particular fad in the radical circles to address interlocutors by third person instead of the customary second person (i.e. "he" instead of "you"), or you just think that directly talking to people like me is beneath your dignity?

Wojtek



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