- Original Message -
From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 6:02 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:35853] To Ian Murray
> Ian, you cite this as an example of my attacking people rather than
ideas?
>
> >To the contrary, a "pacifist" (in the sense of being opposed to the
> >right of the imperialists to make war) position is the only one that
> >principled Marxists, radicals and progressives can put forward.
===
Only that the notion of pacifism includes, is consistent with, an
obligation to engage in communication that refrains from attempts at
character assassination.
>
> Perhaps you should write letters to Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, John
> Pilger, Tariq Ali and Greg Palast as well, who have been making the same
> point all over the place.
=
I have no intention of 'using up' the time those people have. They're
busy enough trying to craft messages that will reach large audiences
without engaging in pre-emptive contempt for them.
>
> In any case, I have two standards. One that I use for people on PEN-L,
> which is fairly restrained. The other is for celebrities not on the list
> (other than those that Doug Henwood favors) like Michael Berube, Russell
> Jacoby, Bill Domhoff and other pro-war, pro-big business, pro-two party
> system scumbags. I have no plans to refrain from heavy doses of sarcasm
> and even--gasp!--ad hominem attacks when addressing such people. If this
> offends you, I invite you to put me into a killfile as some other people
> have crowed that they will do, but somehow never follow up on.
==
There are no celebrities here. Your sarcasm looks a lot like adolescent
name calling and facile attempts at character assassination to me and a
lot of other people, especially those on the receiving end of your
communication. What is it, objectively?
Ian
