Weathermen and Sell-Outs (multiple responses)

SIXTIES-L@lists.village.virginia.edu
Mon, 26 Oct 1998 16:58:17 -0500

[1]

From: T Bruce Tober <octobersdad@reporters.net>
Subject: Re: Weathermen and Rudd (multiple responses)

In message <875b08a7.36310b0f@aol.com>, Sorrento95@AOL.COM writes
>In a message dated 98-10-23 14:41:27 EDT, you write:
>
> Well, it's kind of a judgment call. What's the difference
> between selling out and just giving up in exhaustion? Or
> being repressed out of existence & driven into silence by
> persecution & deprivation?

A great deal, actually. Selling out is joining the opposition to one
degree or another. Or at least that's always been my understanding of
the term.

tbt --

-- 
|Bruce Tober, <octobersdad@reporters.net>, <http://www.crecon.demon.co.uk>   |
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[2]

From: Sorrento95@aol.com Subject: Re: Weathermen and Rudd (multiple responses) >In sixties politics, people who chose pragmatic >rather than ideologically pure political strategies also > had to deal with that charge, Sam Brown, for example >(who was NEVER a SDS leader much less a Weatherperson >like Mark Rudd) was accused of selling out when he joined >the Carter Administration.

Well, let's be true to history here. As I recall, when this group first asserted its identity (circa 1969 ?) they called themselves the Weathermen -- not the "Weatherpersons."

This came from the line in the Bob Dylan song: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." He didn't feel the need to say "you don't need a weatherperson."

Later I heard them referred to as the "Weather Underground." I don't remember them ever aligning themselves with the Dworkinian vision of androgynous pansexualism by calling themselves the "Weather persons."

-- Michael Wright