[lbo-talk] Inquisitorial Trots (Was OFFLIST Re: Arab Spring...)

[Wojtek S]

No disagreement here.  But I think there is a difference between
inquisitors unleashed by the powers that be to destroy an opposition,
and self appointed inquisitors who seize an opportunity themselves to
invent an opposition and attack it to assert themselves.  Probably
these are the same type of individuals - it just social situations
that are different.

wojtek

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2011-09-01, at 10:33 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>> Marv: "Wojtek referred to "inquisitorial characters"…
>>
>> [WS:]  But I also said that they are not limited to Trot groups - nor
>> did I say that all Trots are inquisitorial.  I am speaking of my
>> personal experience here - apparently, it was different than yours.
>> However, I would risk a generalization that radical movements of all
>> colors (left, right, religious, whatever) tend to either attract
>> inquisitorial types or at least give them more opportunities to act.
>> I am not sure why, but my hypothesis is that such movements tend to
>> break the socially established rules of conduct, which creates an
>> opportunity for individuals to act out what they would normally be
>> prohibited from doing in established communities.
>
> Just radical political or religious movements?
>
> What about the grand inquisitors throughout history who persecuted and tortured such dissenters on behalf of the established order? If anything, they've been more prominent. Weren't Hoover and the Republicans and Democrats who sat on the Dies committee and HUAC, to take a recent example, bullying zealots who were given as much or more of an opportunity to act than anyone operating outside the system?
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