Comrades, I would like to say few things about the so-called character-assassination in a debate. A genuine character assassination is performed when one ignores an opponent's arguments in favor of a personal attack on some qualities which are not germane to a debate. But there are cases in which some individual qualities which are germane to public debates, which must not be barred from public criticism. For example one might have the following individual qualities which are germane to a public debate: (1) "Ability" in parroting a formula without understanding its nature, (2) "Ability" in misreading the opponent's writings, (3)"Ability" in not grasping the opponent's central ideas, (4) "Ability" in posing questions with false tacit assumptions, and demanding answers to them in the form of "yes or no" without any analysis of these questions, (5) "Ability" in asserting some propositions with no proof, (6) "Ability" in rejecting the opponent's idea with simple "no" instead of a logical refutation, (7) "Ability" in embellishing one's writing with the names of trusted authorities in the hope of "selling" one's non-existent ideas, (8) "Ability" in scribbling some favorite disparaging stock statements, irrelevant to the main subject of discussion, when one's egocentric ideas are shown to be illogical and ahistorical, etc. If one has these individual qualities which are germane to a public debate, then it is necessary to say something about these qualities in order to overcome these hurdles in a discussion; otherwise, one will end up with no discussion at all. If this is the case, then there is no character-assassination. So, let us have real criticism instead of abstract and imaginary ones.
Javad _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
