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At 11:56 05/01/11 -0500, James Holstun wrote: > >......We need to be looking for and exploiting fissures in the ruling >class. Absolutely, no one disagrees. But that's a lot different from accepting their ideological perspective, even when it matches conclusions which we agree with. [And BTW, I don't know that I would exactly call Mearsheimer a member of the "ruling class." But his outlook is certainly in support of the continuation of capitalism and thus the American empire: perhaps that's what you meant.] >Mearsheimer and Walt are weakest when they prematurely unify America and >say things like "Continued support of the Israeli occupation is not in >America's self-interest." Well I don't call that "weak" (except to the extent that it might be inaccurate, reading "America's self-interest" to mean the interest of the American ruling class). Rather I would simply call it an honest attempt to state what he actually believes: stop supporting Israel for reasons he cites which are OPPOSITE to our interests. > But that's not an >adequate reason to reject M&W wholesale. Again, no one here rejects their analysis wholesale, but rather their intentions. Nor is anyone against reading tracts written by the enemy or various other views, as they may well contain some useful information and/or food for thought, or read simply to see what the enemy is thinking. The problem is that when someone simply forwards an article whose conclusions seem reasonable, it is often assumed that the person posting that article agrees with the author's point of view. When this was pointed out, Louis properly distanced himself from M&W, but he should have just added such a disclaimer when posting it originally. - Jeff ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
