I'm trying to explain Iran's history, politics, economy, etc., with
emphasis on women's conditions, first of all to English-speaking
leftists, and then to the general public. I'm also trying to get
people to understand the significance of alliances that Iranians,
Lebanese, Venezuelans, and others are making. It's for those purposes
I've posted lots of information here, culled from all sorts of
sources, from scholarly journals to such impeccably bourgeois
institutions as the World Bank.
--
Yoshie
Yoshie, the term dialectic comes from the Greek word for argument. I have
given up on trying to debate these questions with you, a position that Doug
seems to be evolving toward as well. The two of us are not only moderators
of two of the more high profile leftist mailing lists on the Internet but
are well-known for enjoying a good debate.
However, it is no longer profitable to debate with you because it is like
talking to a brick wall. The last time I ran into anybody as obdurate and
as prone to cherry-picking facts as you was in the bad old days of the
Marxism mailing list when self-declared vanguard elements persevered in
selling.their own brand of ideological snake oil until people ran away like
the person in Edvard Munch's "The Scream".
I wonder if you think that you have achieved some victory by forcing Doug
and I to walk away from engaging with you. It would seem to me that your
ideas would be sharpened through dialectical interaction with opposing
poles. But I won't waste my time or energy when I sense that the other
person is talking past me. That is too bad because I am sure that your
insights would be deepened by a serious exchange with people who disagree
with you.
However, to be quite blunt about it, I am afraid that Iran and Ahmadinejad
have become an obsession with you, as Doug pointed out. There is nothing
else in the world that matters to you (except perhaps for Genetic
Modification). You remind me of a woman named Lana that I went to high
school with who had joined the Jehovah's Witnesses. After she learned that
my father died in tragic circumstances in 1970, she sent me a long letter
to console me. The first paragraph was personal but the next 25 were about
God's Kingdom. You just don't want to interact with somebody like that.
