File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9710, message 282


From: cbcox-AT-rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Carrol Cox)
Subject: Re: M-I: Re: Get back in the kitchen and rattle them pots & pans!
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 10:23:28 -0500 (CDT)


	Apparently I posted to m-i re some exchange between rodwell and
Jim. I don't remember what, why, or when, but I must have been feeling
slightly dizzy if I read anything by or responded to anything from
Rodwell, whom I have not read for a year or so.

Carrol
> 
> James Blaut:
> 
> >Hugh: 
> >
> >Your problemr is that you can't tell when you're being kidded. A sturdy
> >sense of humor is a vital quality in a revolutionary, particularly in these
> >times.
> 
> This is disingenuous; in debate, the kind of heavy, elaborate 'kidding' 
> James B. resorts to in his post is often used in deliberate bad faith as an 
> offensive weapon (Louis P. is a consummate practitioner of this art). There 
> is always the chance that a number of people will fail to see the 'joke' and 
> take the content at face value -- as happened in this case (viz. Carrol C.'s 
> predictable reaction). The kidder has then succeeded in damaging his 
> adversary's reputation at no cost to himself. If the victim chooses to 
> interpret his antagonist's remarks as harmless badinage, his silence will -- 
> with any luck -- be taken by said people as a tacit admission of the charge. 
> If on the other hand he retaliates, he can always be chastised for lacking 
> in the qualities that make a true revolutionary in these discouraging times.
> 
> Who said there was no such thing as a free lunch?
> 
> >But the kidding had a serious point to it [...].
> 
> No, really?
> 
> >Another serious point [...].
> 
> Say no more.
> 
> 
> Stuart Sheild
> 
> 
> 
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> 



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