[lbo-talk] lbo-talk Digest, Vol 185, Issue 7

[Eric Balkan]

----
Genghis or Lenin or Darwin are contingencies, and of course not
predictable (nor for that manner very describable, even after the
 fact).
But what could Darwin have done had he been born in 910 in Saxony? The
question is absurd. And you don't seriously maintain, do you, that
Genghis could have united fractiousd nomadic tribes had he been born in
Harlem in 1920?

Your example simply demonstrates vividly what Miles has been arguing.

Carrol
----

Having jumped into the middle of this, I have to confess I don't know
what Miles was arguing. :-)  

I'm not sure what your intention was in listing Genghis, Lenin and
Darwin as "contingencies".  If you exclude remarkable individuals from
the argument, then you've created an argument that's true by
definition. 

I don't disagree with you that Harlem in 1920 would have been a tough
place from which to conquer the world, lol, but I do think that any
study of society must take into account that no society is eternally
static.  And when change comes, it'll be because of remarkable
individuals.  

How to actually make use of that information, I can't say for sure. 
But to ignore it -- to assume, in the 1970s for instance, that the Shah
of Iran would be on the throne for decades and that the personality of
the Ayatollah Khomeini should not be studied -- that was a fatal
mistake.   

I don't know if that's in agreement or disagreement with what's been
said before.  Just my 2 cents, relevant or not. 

 - Eric Balkan
   http://ibrakefortrees.wordpress.com