Re: On Academe and the list was Re: NACLA and Colombia

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary MacLennan wrote:

>
> However the issue I wish to deal with primarily is the status of academics
> on this list. To listen to Michael and Yoshie and Carroll (!) one would
> think that academics were an endangered species on Marxism@lists. Rubbish I
> say.

Let's take this in little pieces. It's not the fate of academics on marxism
lists I'm concerned about -- I'm concerned about the profligate use
of that class of arguments generally characterized as "poisoning the wells
of discourse," which happens whenever one focuses on the nature of
the speaker and his/her relations rather than on the content of what
was said. Now of course the species of this with which everyone on
this list is quite familiar is red-baiting. She's soft on Stalin, so whatever
she says is suspect . . . etc.

I don't like red baiting -- and I don't like any of its cousins, half-sisters,
step-mothers, or great grandmothers or grandchildren. And constant
sneers at academics *as* academics falls into this category, and it
poisons debate and discussion.

If Lou had just described what a lousy account of the Sandinistas X
gave, all would have been well. But he had to go and label him an
academic. So what the fucking hell!

Carrol