[PEN-L:11478] Re: Marxist response to East Timor

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Keaney wrote:

>  it is up to people like us to
> ensure that those countries sponsoring the intervention are pressured into a
> following a genuinely humanitarian course

NO! NO! NO! Back in the 1950s there was a fad of "The height of"
jokes. The height of arrogance was a flea approaching an elephant
with intentions of rape. That seems to me a good model for your
view that anything at all in this instance is "up to us." Our responsibility
is to continue various random efforts to build our strength to the
point where it makes sense to say something is up to us. And I want
to emphasize the random because we are at present too weak to
consult with each other on non-random choices of action. Fussing
about what we should do in East Timor is counterproductive in
respect to our real responsibilities.

Carrol