On Mar 30, 2009, at 2:32 PM, SA wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> My only point is that people are drawn to radical politics, or any
>> other kind, on what they think of as moral or ethical principles.
>> Sure, these can be post facto or socially determined or whatever,
>> and not some timeless template applied to transient social reality,
>> but I'd argue that even Marxists who think they're being scientific
>> are thinking in some moral or ethical sense. I'm talking about how
>> people think and feel about their choices and affiliations. And if
>> you want to engage them, you have to deal with that.
>
> But if you believe people's subjective states of mind are irrelevant
> and have no effect on anything -- a view which apparently leads one
> to the conclusion that Jim Crow would have been ended even if the
> Freedom Ride buses had been filled with robots -- then this doesn't
> make any difference.
I was trying to be peacemaking & constructive.
Doug