[Marxism] Re: Theresa

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, a  moment of calm has convinced me that we should not respond to
Theresa at all -- not by so much as a word.  We should simply go on to
continue discussing the business at hand.

I have experience trying to talk to people in her condition.  My mother
was a very nice, intelligent, loving person -- really a good mama in her
way --who also happened to be a lifelong paranoid schizophrenic -- that
is unpredictable, likely to interpret events or non-events ( a lot of
events took place in her head that were not carried by any of the major
network == probably even Fox 5 would have passed on them) in shockingly
unrealistic way -- especially to a longing-to-be-rational little kid who
thought you should be able to explain to anybody.  I think we have less
chance of making any headway with her than we had with Charlie, for
example.

Charlie's politics are much worse than Theresa's, but Charlie still has
a mailing address on the planet earth and I am not sure  that Theresa
does at this precise moment.  She may pop her gasket at us for not
saying anything now but be glad later when she is back on her medication
or changes her dosage or whatever.
But this sounds so familiar to me.  I think for anyone who had their
heads screwed on, what I had to say (which even endorsed her view on
"instinctive" by the way)
in my previous letter set a clear basis for clearing the air and moving
on.  Her claim that I am presenting her as the"subjective" one and her
as having the ego problem (I even argue that it is NOT a problem, which
is my real view) is wildly far from what I said, and making a big point
of it is just battering a person who, on some (hopefully modest)level
really is hallucinating, with the fact that you're in the real world and
they aren't, yaaah-yaaah-yaaah.

If she is having a real episode as I believe (regardless of the fact
that the politics she expresses have real-world roots, which are not
limited to the fact that she is not a Marxist per se). In reality her
nationalism and feminism are on different wavelengths.  Her nationalism
is comfortable in the real world (perhaps because it is more acceptable
at least to Black men and to whites such as ourselves).  But her
feminism touches family=related disturbances more deeply, and her the
character of feminism in Solidarity is no help at all.

At any rate, we should cut her a lot of slack-- and I see no way to do
that except to be silent now. Later, we can talk about it privately and
mildly, as friends respectful about her ideas but also concerned about
her well being (I have such friends, and really appreciate having them.)

Get my drift.  This really is the voice of experience.  My letter should
be viewed as a test (one that if I knew the results for sure, I would
not have made)
 which may help get Theresa's moment into perspective.  But pursuing a
drive against her current weakness would be pure sadism, and
indefensible, in my  opinion.
Fred



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