[lbo-talk] Jeremiah Wright or Wrong?

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Sat Mar 22 15:35:11 PDT 2008


On Saturday 22 March 2008 15:28:48 knowknot at mindspring.com wrote:
> one might wonder in what respect his statement,
>
> "The government lied about inventing the
> HIV virus as a means of genocide against
> people of color"
>
> "needs no defense" (or, for that matter, is even capable of a defense that
> that is in any way fact based or otherwise coherent).

Defense, or (better word) solidarity doesn't imply agreement on all points.

It's awfully interesting how HIV/AIDS is a kind of tabula rasa on which people inscribe the stories they need to read. We can't resist moralizing nature -- sermons in stones, as the man said. There are several competing paysages-moralisés on this topic:

1) The Fallwellian/Robertsonian: HIV/AIDS is a punishment for our collective sin of permissiveness (to borrow a trope from that unforgettable moral philosopher Spiro Agnew).

2) Knownot has obligingly given us a sound bite which may well represent Rev Wright's considered view -- I haven't researched the matter and don't really know.

3) The bien-pensant upper-middle-class pwog version runs something like this: The experts in white coats would have found a cure years ago if the Government had only spent enough money. They want to kill us!

Of the three, which is the silliest? I'm not clear that #2 wins by any very decisive margin -- if it wins at all. On balance I kinda prefer its distrust of expertise to View #3's implicit reliance.



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