[lbo-talk] Re: Re: Inorganic Intellectuals and the Mythical Ideal of the

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 1/15/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Jan 15, 2007, at 4:25 PM, Jim Straub wrote:
>
> > The problem is not that there is a lack of ideas about how to
> > improve the world; the problem is that the good guys do not have
> > sufficient power or support to bring these things into being, to
> > win battles over them.  Leftos being a country apart from their
> > orddinary neighbors is not a problem because it keeps us from the
> > secret and brilliant ideas of the sentimentalized masses, but
> > rather is a problem because none of our goals can be acheived
> > without the support and massed power of millions of people in
> > concrete ways.
>
> Yup. But Yoshie's latest line seems to be that it's our fault, the
> left intellectuals, for sharpening our heads to too fine a point.

Nowhere did I say, "It's our fault."  Rather, the opposite -- I
clearly said, "That is neither our fault nor their fault -- that's
just a fact."  If you doubt it, you can see it here:
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20070108/000917.html>.

 It's probably your Catholic upbringing that has you substitute the
assignment of guilt for the question of facts and explanations.

I also don't think that left intellectuals are particularly sharper
than the common run of Americans on all questions.  It took the former
about the same time as it did the latter to get to the conclusion that
US troops must be withdrawn from Iraq.  The former and the latter have
just about the same illusion about the place of the USA in the world.
-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>