On 5/22/12 11:40 AM, Jim Devine wrote: > Louis Proyect wrote: >> From part three [of the PBS series]: >> >> The show ends with about as much of a political prescription from >> Diamond as can be found anywhere. Until the publication of “Collapse,” >> he has studiously stayed above the fray when it comes to the question of >> how the victims of colonialism can finally enjoy equality with those who >> colonized them. > > Right. I was only talking about Diamond's GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL book. > His later stuff seems inferior to me. COLLAPSE, for example, was > interesting but not very illuminating.
Didn't you notice what I wrote? The PBS series was on "Guns, Germs and Steel", not "Collapse". Furthermore, Diamond wrote the script. > > BTW, I see no point in choosing among scholars, deciding that Diamond > is better or worse than some other thinker who addresses this or any > other question. Rather than a focus on individual thinkers, I think > that we should choose between individual theories (and even those we > choose should be treated critically) Thus, we might choose Diamond's > GGS theory as being better than some other theory (and perhaps > inferior to a third) even if he's an axe murderer or whatever. Diamond is not as bad as Niall Ferguson, for example, but basically his message is one of fatalism. > > An emphasis on individual personalities encourages the sectarianism > that infects much of academia (of all political stripes) and political > groups. (I discovered a long time ago that sectarianism was encouraged > when personal differences interacted with and reinforced political > differences -- and vice-versa -- forming a vicious circle.) Sorry, Jim. I plan to continue to critique Jared Diamond or Robert Brenner as the mood hits me. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
