[lbo-talk] Iran before Ahmadinejad (was capital punishment in Iran)

[wrobert at uci.edu]

Funny, I remember the demand on the part of Leninists (in this case the
Freedom Road Socialist Organization in Mpls.) to never criticize the Iraqi
regime or Saddam Hussein during the anti-sanctions campaigns... on the
logic that "any nail in the coffin of imperialism is a good nail" or some
bullshit like that.  For all my disagreements with Edward Said's position
on humanism, I will always have a certain amount of love for the man for
basically blowing that position out of the water, when he gave at talk in
Mpls around that time.

                              Robert Wood


> I guess we have run up against a sort of hidden or implicit principle in
> the area of left decorum, best understood perhaps in terms of the
> citizens' demands in Coriolanus that he show his wounds before they will
> vote for him. It is o.k. to declare total support of any opponent of the
> u.s. PROVIDED that one go through the motions of showing one's proper
> liberal horror of whatever illiberal features that opponent exhibits.
> Yoshie must show her moral purity by condemning the warts in order to
> earn the right to assess Iran objectively (from a political rather
> perspective rather than that of moral purism). She must show her wounds
> -- i.e. her moral sensibilities.
>
> Yoshie has violated this hidden rule of left decorum and turned all
> right-thinking people against her.
>
> I wonder what's been going on in Albania recently.
>
> Carrol
>
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