Carrol Cox wrote: > This attempt to understand one period by comparing it to some other > historical period is the surest way to be wrong.
_Any_ argument by historical analogy (the current era is like the Weimar era, the state's current domestic role is just like that under COINTELPRO and its foreign policy is just like that during the Vietnam war, etc.) is almost guaranteed to be wrong unless differences between the two things being compared are mentioned and discussed. It's the famous fallacy of argument by analogy. But then again, the application of _any_ theory to describe reality is also wrong, since it's also an argument by analogy, unless the differences between the theory are made very clear and discussed. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the human mind can only works using analogies (metaphors, similes, etc.) We cannot present a totally concrete analysis of concrete conditions. So we can't dismiss either historical or theoretical analogies out of hand. -- Jim Devine / "Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it." -- George Bernard Shaw _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
