[lbo-talk] Tell them we are democrats (was: freedom to swim)

[ravi]

On Jun 28, 2009, at 8:15 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Jun 27, 2009, at 10:19 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:07:23 -0400
>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I care what
>>> Iranians are thinking and doing, and whether the nature of the  
>>> Iranian
>>> regime squares at all with my ideas of justice.
>>
>> Doug, these two interests may not be entirely harmonious. Suppose
>> most Iranians don't share your ideas of justice -- where in that
>> case do you land?
>
> My ideas of justice affect what I think and say about events in Iran  
> (cue Carrol Cox and his sandbox), but it's up to Iranians, not me,  
> of course. But I think there are a lot of Iranians who do share my  
> ideas of justice, all the tendencies of the Western left to  
> exoticize them aside.
>

Fine as far as that goes, but it is not an act of exoticising for  
someone to say that perhaps your "ideas of justice", even if its  
shared by a "lot" of Iranians, may neither be universal nor shared by  
the majority. Rather, I suspect, it is the assumption that indeed your  
ideas of justice are universal that is driving this accusation of  
exoticisation i.e., you seem to be suggesting that if X does not agree  
that a majority of Iranians share your idea of justice, then X is  
exoticising Iranians (correct me, if wrong).

IMHO, ideas of justice can be universalised but only in the form a  
framework.

	--ravi