[lbo-talk] Constructive Criticism vs. Opposition Criticism (wasTargeting Empire?)

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Tue Sep 11 09:45:39 PDT 2007


On 11 Sep, 2007, at 10:59 AM, Marvin Gandall wrote:
>
> I'd take it a step further and ask what's wrong with outside
> criticism of
> any state, even one that is anticapitalist?
> <...>
> It's no less legitimate for Western leftists to criticize the Islamic
> Republic whose politics, if anything, are even more remote from
> their own,
> without being accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. These
> criticisms may sometimes be exaggerated or out of context or just
> plain
> wrong, but so what? The critics can be corrected without their
> motives being
> made suspect.
>

Yes, why not! I'll get started on wiring up all the Iranian people and subscribing them to LBO, so they may correct their critics! ;-) (1/2)

The point is not all this stuff about "aid and comfort to the enemy" (has anyone written this sort of nonsense on LBO?), but that this sort of thing (even if correct) is "intellectual honesty" for its own sake. A constant reminder to me is Seymour Hersh's great expose (unverified) that Morarji Desai was a CIA agent -- right around the time that the Indian population was struggling its way out of years of emergency rule under Indira Gandhi (described by another white guy as someone in possession of "uncommon wisdom", IIRC).

As long as we can somehow view another nation, group of people, what- have-you as "capitalist", then the gloves come off? And so what if this whole Marxist filter is exaggerated, out of context, or just plain wrong? It can always be corrected... or can it, if it is so axiomatic as it seems?

Also it is late in the game to talk of "motives" and the questioning of them. The archives are littered with psycho-analytical speculation on why this or that person or group says something, often with no attention paid at all to the content.

As for left "opposition criticism", "aid and comfort to the enemy" type rhetoric, etc, see:

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php? AID=12791

--ravi



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