Mark Jones, If you are calling Jerry Levy "Un Ouanquere" (a word which does not happen to rise to the level of being in my Larousse French dictionary), then I guess Jerry is correct in his assessment of the quality of your on-line dialogue. Louis Proyect is described by yourself as "totally principled". What has he done to deserve this sanction? On January 30, 1997, your opinion was "Personally I no longer think Stalin was bad....It [the Soviet Union] lasted glorious seventy years, from 30 December 1922 to 31 December 1991. A seventy year holiday from the life the rest of us lead." Louis explicits states that he does not agree with you on what you find as "glorious". He considers himself a Castroite. How can Louis disagree with you on such a basic issue and still be "totally principled"? The more I think about it, the usage of the word "principled" has been devalued to just an extent that its usage more represents a statement of political alignment than anything of substance. Everyone seems to think they want to be called "principled" (was the Hilter-Stalin pact "principled"? was deserting the Greek post-WWII revolution "principled"?, was the Great Leap Forward "principled", was the invasion of Cambodia "principled", was perestroika "principled"?), but in the final analysis what is one person's attribution of another as "principled" doesn't tell us much. And to go so far as to describe a person as "totally principled", whoa! That's four times better than being a person "who cannot be bribed". So, if you can put substance into your statement that Louis is "totally principled" and yet not contradict your political disagreements with Louis (for example, on the Stalin period), maybe I'll learn something and have a reaction. Paul Zarembka >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 20:52:58 +0100 From: Mark Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [PEN-L:146] Un Ouanquere Look, I'm not going to waste time debating Jerry Levy, who is what the French call un ouanqure, but I do want to say that Lou Proyect is not just a pal of mine, he is a totally principled, passionate and dependable communist, as well as a clever man and a brilliant thinker. I would be happy to appear next to him on any scaffold... Mark ************************************************************************* Paul Zarembka, on OS/2 and supporting RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at ********************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka
