File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1996/96-12-15.193, message 10


Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 22:50:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Gerald Levy <glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Juan's evasions and misrepresentations


Jon Beasley-Murray wrote:

> b) if someone calls me an "English dolt" (say), I take it that the
> "English" is more than a factual qualifier of a general insult, but is in
> some sense part of that insult.  Equally, if someone calls me a
> "small-minded graduate student" (say), then I would equally tend to think
> that the idea of small-mindedness is more than contingently attached to
> the idea of graduate student in the speaker's utterance.

So if someone calls you a US (country)-professor(occupation)-post-Marxist,
then this means that one -- of course -- is insulting your nationality and
occupation? For someone who teaches literature, this is a rather
far-fetched understanding of the meaning of terms.

I guess if I called Che Guevara a doctor that would be an insult as well.
If I called Paul Mattick a tool-and-die maker, that *must* be an insult.
If I said that Stalin was Georgian, that *must* mean that I am prejudiced
against Georgians. If I call Doug Henwood petty-bourgeois, that must mean
that I am prejudiced against the petty bourgeoisie. If I call  someone a
London-clinical psychologist-petty moralizer, then that just *must* mean
that I am prejudiced against clinical psychologists and residents of
London.

On the other hand, when Juan describes me as a tenured academic
bureaucrat, that's just an innocent mistake. Right? When Juan implies that
Kliman and Freeman are just vulgar economists, that must be innocent as
well. Right? When Juan uses the occasion of a death of a friend of mine to
take cheap shots at me, that's innocent as well. Right? When Juan forwards a
private message that I sent him to the list, that's innocent as well.
Right?  Please, Jon -- stop the double standards.

Are we having fun yet?

Jerry



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