[PEN-L:7385] Re: J. Donald Hughes on Mayan collapse

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:

>>Breathtaking.
>>
>>Doug
>
>More apolitical sniping from Doug.

Is it apolitical to express shock and disapproval for your arrogant
dismissal of Jim O'Connor? Maybe so, maybe it's just bourgeois personalism
or some such failing. If it is, I plead guilty. But, as Bob Fitch says,
socialism should be social.

>It would probably be asking too much for
>him to investigate for himself who is closer to the truth on Mayan
>agriculture, Hughes--who I discovered is a regular CNS columnist, a scary
>thought--or Sharer.

Yes, it probably is asking too much. Life is short, and I have many things
to investigate. Right now I'm more interested in the state of union
politics in New York City; the war in Yugoslavia, capital flows to Latin
America, relations among race/class/sex/nationalism, the impact of the euro
on the global political economy, and the reasons that people believe the
things they do about politics than I am in the reasons for the Mayans
demise 1000 years ago. Sorry. I do find it interesting that people often
develop deep interests in issues far from them in time & space as a way of
compensating from their withdrawal from politics in their own part of the
world.

I've been reading CNS since its first issue, and I've always found it to be
serious, rigorous, enlightening, and original. When it covers material I
know about, I never get the feeling that I'm reading some highly distorted
caricature. When I read Proyect on material I know about, I often get that
feeling. So pardon me if I don't accept your characterization of the
literature on the Mayans.

>Most people on PEN-L recognized what my letter was about. It was a cry of
>pain after receiving a humiliating rejection letter from an editor, who had
>invited me to expand on a post that I had made originally on Doug's mailing
>list to submit to his journal.

So don't confuse wounded narcissism with political principle then.

>I organized the Skilled Trades Task Force of Tecnica, which sent welders,
>machinists and printers to work with Nicaraguan trade unionists during a
>time of economic blockade and warfare. These workers helped to keep the
>infrastructure of Nicaragua going under tremendous duress. I also worked
>with the people who completed Ben Linder's hydroelectric dam project in
>northern Nicaragua. And organized people to automate the offices of COSATU,
>the South African trade union movement. And organized the people who
>trained SWAPO in desktop publishing, so they could put together election
>campaign material. It is a real slap in the face for me to get a lecture on
>the working class from somebody whose only contact with workers is probably
>the maintenance crew that cleans the toilet in his office bathroom at the
>University.

Those are all very fine things you did. Why spoil them with a completely
unwarranted slur against Jim O'Connor?

Doug