File spoon-archives/marxism2.archive/marxism2_1996/96-06-08.010, message 64


Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 08:09:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Santiago Colas <scolas-AT-umich.edu>
Subject: Re: Sokal and ethics


Excuse me, Rahul, I'm not trying to be an asshole.  But it seems like 
much of what goes on this list, as on m1 before it, turned on struggling 
to figure out just what a leftist was.  How many arguments have been 
spawned on this list by one participant questioning the credentials of 
another.  I'm not saying he is or he isn't.  All I'm saying, and I can be 
a bit more specific here, is that the Sandinista revolution drew active 
support from a relatively broad sector of the United States; so that 
one's being there doesn't make one a "leftist", nor does the other 
evidence Sokal offers:  that he agrees with the ST editorial collective 
on every social issue.  Rather than this "mine's longer" approach to 
claiming the purity of one's political credential, it might be more 
productive to actually figure out what it might mean to call oneself a 
leftist and how that measures up with one's objective position.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Santiago Colas					e-mail:	scolas-AT-umich.edu
Asst. Professor					phone:	(313) 763-4352
Latin American and Comparative Literature	fax:	(313) 764-8163
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1275
USA

On Sun, 26 May 1996, Rahul Mahajan wrote:

> Don't be an asshole, Santiago. Sokal says he's a leftist and, unless you
> know something to the contrary, you have no business impugning his
> political credentials.
> 
> Rahul
> 
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 


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