That's an interesting word, polemicist, for what I'd ordinarily label a fanatic: same thing. ==DP At 12:18 PM 02/16/2003 -0600, you wrote: >Brennan's recent outpouring of self-hate shouldn't really be taken at >face value. When he talks about his "cancerous respect for democracy, >free speech, and worst of all, free enterprise", he seems to me to be >playing a game whereby we who disagree with him (either by engaging his >specific points or by simply calling him a jingoist) will recognize how >far we are from the position of America-loving righteousness. As for >the people who dismiss him as a jingo, they have failed as well, in >that they want mainly to stress their own a priori correctness as >critics of American power. In both cases, the discourse of this list >suffers. > >Foucault made some comments on polemics that I find instructive: "In >the serious play of questions and answers, in the work of reciprocal >elucidation, the rights of each person are in some sense immanent in >the discussion. . . Questions and answers depend on a game -- a game >that is at once pleasant and difficult -- in which each of the two >partners takes pains to use only the rights given him by the other and >by the accepted form of the dialogue. > The polemicist, on the other hand, proceeds encased in privileges that >he possesses in advance and will never agree to question. On >principle, he possesses rights authorizing him to wage war and making >that struggle a just undertaking; that person he confronts is not a >partner in the search for truth but an adversary, an enemy who is >wrong, who is harmful, and whose very existence constitutes a threat. . >. his final objective will be not to come as close as possible to a >difficult truth but to bring about the triumph of the just cause he has >been manifestly upholding from the beginning. The polemicist relies on >a legitimacy that his adversary is by definition denied." > >I recommend this not because it is by Foucault and so somehow sacred. >It applies, it seems to me, to numerous moments on this list when >polemics become "a parasitic figure on discussion and an obstacle to >the search for truth." Calling someone a jingo is to assume from the >outset that they're too blinkered by ideology to even process sentences >for the truth they might point at. In the same way, someone announcing >disingenuously that he "ponder[s] self-flagellation" as a cure for his >deep respect for democratic ideals is attempting to accuse his enemies >of disrespecting something sacrosanct.. > >American policies and their consequences for other countries are not >obviously one thing or another, obviously good and benevolent, or >obviously malicious and mean-spirited. To find out the character of >American interventions on foreign soil, people inclined to polemicize >ought to hold their tongues, and consider what they have already taken >for granted. > >I appreciate this list. That does not mean however that I want to >invite everyone to my lovely Oak Park apartment and sit them down for >wife-made cookies. I'll settle for thoughful, non-self-pitying, >non-manipulative discussion. > >Happy Sunday to all, >Jon > >On Saturday, February 15, 2003, at 08:26 PM, Brennen Lukas wrote: > >>Furthermore, I am ashamed of my jingoist blithering. Last night I wept >>openly as so many of you made clear that my soul is corrupted by an >>unnatural urge to question the efficacy of pacifism in world affairs. >>Even >>now, I ponder self-flagellation. If only painful lashes across my back >>would >>rid me of my cancerous respect for democracy, free speech, and worst >>of all, >>free enterprise. Alas, I fear I am beyond repair, quite unworthy of >>cleaning >>Ezra Pound's sanatorium bedpan, let along posting to a list serve >>dedicated >>to his work. > >===================================================== >Dan Pearlman's home page: >http://pages.zdnet.com/danpearl/danpearlman/ > >My new fiction collection, THE BEST-KNOWN MAN IN THE WORLD AND OTHER >MISFITS, may be ordered online at http://www.aardwolfpress.com/ >"Perfectly-crafted gems": Jack Dann, Nebula & World Fantasy Award winner > >Director, Council for the Literature of the Fantastic: >http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/ > >OFFICE: >Department of English >University of Rhode Island >Kingston, RI 02881 >Tel.: 401 874-4659 >Fax: (253) 681-8518 >email: [log in to unmask]