In response to Colin's statement: >>Ajit is working toward the question of commitment and the degree of >>involvement and understanding that responsible and good-faith critique >>requires. He has tried to draw a distinction between a sort of >>from-the-outside critique that expresses disgust and distance, and a >>more committed sort of criticism that implies learning and, yes, some >>degree of involvement. This need not be the same as complete >>acculturation. Bill Lear wrote: > >This is what galls me---that we should for two seconds be concerned >about what "responsible and good faith critique requires". My claim >is that there is no yardstick, however flexible, that is of any use. >I remain unconvinced that a "from-the-outside critique that expresses >disgust and distance" is unhelpful, in fact I am convinced of quite >the opposite. > >Your dodge of then defining culture in (yes, I'm afraid) a very >postmodernly plastic way, simply leaves us where we started. > >Suppose I offer a critique of fundamentalist religion which teaches >hatred. Suppose then that you make some judgment based on my >"commitment and degree of involvement" and decide that it isn't quite >up to snuff. I fail to see how this is of any use---we must confront >criticism directly. We can't simply filter it out into categories of >"responsible" or "good faith". ___________________ If you are bent upon calling people names and fighting for your right to do so, then go ahead and do it. US protects freedom of speech, which I support very strongly, so there is no reason to fight to have a right to say whatever you want. You already have it. But your right to call 'Islamic Fundamentalists' terrorists, or crazy or whatever, is not going to do much difference to these people. You will be simply classified as one of the enemies, and that would be it. However, if you took care to understand the political situation in Arab and made a sympathetic critique of the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism as say a dangerous and wrong headed political movement, you would be participating in a internal political debate and influencing it. Cheers, ajit sinha
