[Fwd: Re: Culture and Technology (was Re: Abortion, Killing etc)]

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

> This is borne out by the polls too, as Doug's posts show.  Now, a socialist
> and feminist thing to do is not to accept this by saying "this is how they
> think" but to try, in any way we can, to bring people's thinking in line
> with their practice, especially in this case (as in many others) class
> pride (dignity in stoic acceptance of sufferings) without class
> consciousness does much injury to the very holders of the class pride, not
> to the rich who don't suffer much (if at all) from the restrictions.  Any
> thoughts on the matter?
>
> Yoshie

 Yoshie, I don't think anyone is advocating not engaging with how people
think about abortion! This is a straw man/woman.  women's autonomy,
etc.   Paul for instance, discusses these issues with his students
endlessly.  He asks them : well, why should you pay for your mistakes if
you don't have to? That makes them think -- because in fact, they DON'T
believe in paying for their mistakes -- for instance, they don't think
they should fail a course, even if they do absolutely no work, rarely
come to class and turn in their final paper late after being warned all
semester that no late papers will be accepted. And many of them use
illegal  drugs without thinking they belong in jail. etc
  I think it's more a question of how you go about it. the appendectomy
analogy comes across as a refusal to engage. It won't persuade anyone
who doesn't already agree.
  Or have you found that comparing abortion to a trivial operation is an
effective way of getting people  on the fence to be more pro-choice?

Katha