Re: [sixties-l] Re: sixties-l-Horowitz as Pat Buchanan

From: Seth Williamson (sethwill@swva.net)
Date: Sat Sep 09 2000 - 13:29:39 CUT

  • Next message: William M Mandel: "[sixties-l] [Fwd: [EMMAS] INVITATION TO A PARTY]"

    >Actually. David. I was quite polite. considering the circumstances,
    >i.e., your publishing an attack on me without having the common courtesy
    >of, at least, sending me a copy of your article. But never mind. What
    >should be pointed out immediately is that you did not even attempt to
    >answer the question I put to my students, namely, tell me one moment in
    >time when there was liberty and justice for all the people in this
    >country, or any practical proof that such was ever the intention...

    I am always nonplussed by such questions. Human beings being the imperfect
    and fallen lot they are, prone to selfishness and likely to dress up the
    oppression of other folks with fancy self-justifying language, when will
    there EVER be perfect justice for all? Never in this sublunary existence.

    David's point is still germane, and you still haven't responded to it.
    Oppressed minorities from all over the world want to come to this nation
    because there is more justice, not to mention material wealth, than
    anywhere else at any time or place in human history. Conversely, almost
    none of them wish to leave. These facts are a mute but huge reproach to
    your notion of America.

    Yeah, some parts of our history aren't pretty. So welcome to Reality As We
    Know It. There is no nation on earth whose history is not a sorry catalog
    of oppression and injustice. Your complaint is with human nature, not with
    America.

    >>Everybody in America is free to leave. Few do...

    >It takes some money and then in some in one's pocket to leave, but some
    >do...

    Wait a minute. Do I understand you to say that, if people just had more
    money, they'd be leaving this nation in droves? Is that your claim?
    Please.

    >The young people are already alienated from the system by the time they
    >get to high school...

    I don't know what kind of students you have, but it is almost a certainty
    that any alienation they feel is due not to some fundamental injustice
    about life in the United States but some other social factor/s.



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Sep 10 2000 - 04:43:31 CUT