Max: "Abbie Hoffman had more influence than Diana. I defy anyone to specify concrete, noteworthy social changes resulting from her existence." In the spirit of hard-headed science, Max, how about quantifying the respective influences of Abbie and Diana? While we're at it, why not throw in some multiple regression analysis? Wouldn't it make more sense simply to say "I like Abbie Hoffman and his views/values better than those of Diana? "Nor do I think you can say any change in the disposition of land-mines will have any effect on the conduct of war, repression, or counter-insurgency in the next century." I heard a local representative of an organization fighting to have an anti-land mine treaty put in place this morning on CBC radio. Given your statement, I guess there's nothing his contention and that of other folks fighting against the use of anti-personnel mines in places like Angola and Cambodia that the deployment of these armaments changed drastically in the 1980s, that the new deployment was designed to inflict damage and terror on local populations instead of targeting armed combatants. Nothing to their thanks to Diana's efforts for helping to publicize this fact via things like documentaries filmed in Angola with the civilian victims of these mines. Since you have declared that any change in the disposition of land mines won't have any effect on the conduct of war, etc. I guess that settles it. No point in trying to raise public awareness or to change public opinion on the subject. In any event, that wouldn't be _real_ social change, would it? Sid Shniad
