This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_914356735_boundary No, unlike Bill's, my apology is sincere and as for close to Bill's, well you know the rest..."close but no cigar". But you know, reductio ad absurdum/nauseum as a instrument of rhetoric and reasoning does not so much suggest analogy as to expore the inner and perhaps hidden nature and consequences of a thing by extrapolating the inexorable or likely consequences if given "principles", "axioms" and "concepts" are consistently and universally applied. That is the spirit in which it is used rather than to suggest that the nazis were holding seminars and praticums on Walras, Pareto or even Hayek to construct marginalist calculations and general "equilibria" schemes and orders. But I really did like Wotjek's comments and about the illusions of "choice". As the new inmates came to Auschwitz they were greeted with the monstrous grand illusion "Arbeit Macht Frei" implying the "choice" to either directly die or survive through work. Of course the work itself was designed not only to produce but to degrade and kill through other means. A lot of capitalism is like that. Enough of my analogies already--for now. Jim Craven --part0_914356735_boundary Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> by rly-ya05.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) Tue, 22 Dec 1998 14:38:33 -0500 (EST) be forged)) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 11:35:12 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [PEN-L:1844] Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Redutio ad Absurdum In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa for any overreach on mym part or for not making the extent of any analogy clear.< you don't need to apologize as much as this! (Watch out: you'll start sounding like Bill Clinton.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html --part0_914356735_boundary--