Tom Walker wrote: > Ken Hanly asked, > > >How can intelligent people come up with such > >mindless uncritical drivel and Pavlovian reactions? > > That's a rhetorical question. Don't you just love it when somebody answers a > rhetorical question? The answer to this question requires rephrasing the > redundent expression "intelligent people". People are intelligent animals. > That is, people ARE intelligent, by definition. I want to branch from the immediate topic of this thread to comment on the extremely bad habit of using terms for intelligence as though they were moral or political categories. I want to really agree *strongly* with Tom's point that people are intelligent by definition. The actual differences in intelligence among people are really almost infinitesimal, and every time I hear of the populace being called stupid for having bad taste or bad politics or bad this or that I cringe. And while I'm at it it, I think it stupid to use the term apathetic as a (implicitly) moral condemnation rather than as a simple observation on the really intelligent response of people to the situation they find themselves in under capitalism. It is intelligent not stupid to believe one's leaders. It is intelligent not stupid to believe that things are as good as they are probably going to get and that thrashing about will only make them worse. Those who by some kind of wild luck know that this is in fact terribly false simply have no fucking right to ascribe this to their superior intelligence or their superior moral fibre or their superior willingness to go out and fight. We really don't know why it is that every 25 to 75 years huge masses of "ordinary people" suddenly move and move vigorously. Our theory (or at least the theory of some of us) about what class conscious minorities have to do when suddenly confronted with this wonderful situation is quite developed. I think at this level Lenin did a much better job than most even Leninists credit him with doing. What most Leninists and anti-leninists don't credit him with doing is recognizing so sharply and powerfully how his particular theories about vanguards etc. were totally helpless to *create* the situation or conditions under which they became relevant. The habit of calling people stupid or apathetic is simply a symptom of ignorance concerning what it is that brings about these recurrent but unpredictable upsurges that suddenly make all the sophisticated political theory relevant. Mao really was right. Trust the People. In the meantime, just because we don't know what causes that trust to all of a sudden bear fruit, we have to keep plugging along, thrinking and trying to trigger struggles and talking to each other. This is a leap, but with some intervening links missing, these are some of the reasons why I have lost interest in listening to those who try to defend NATO's actions. I'm only interested in listening to those who share the recognition that NATO is to be opposed and recognize that our function is not to debate about that topic like students in a seminar room but consult and reconsult with each other on various ways in which we just might accidentally strike the right spark that will start a prairie fire. Carrol
