[PEN-L:30290] RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Reply to Michael Berube

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L:30289] Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Reply to Michael Berube

 yes it's too personal. BTW, I was not arguing for "niceness." Rather, we need a long-term perspective.
JD

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Perelman
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 9/16/2002 5:08 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:30289] Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Reply to Michael Berube

is this getting a bit too personal?

On Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 07:29:56PM -0400, Louis Proyect wrote:
> Devine, James wrote:
>
> > Of course you will, but is what you do effective for promoting
socialism?
> >
> Absolutely.
>
> > Calling someone a petty-bourgeois individualist lackey -- or "Miss
> > Manners -- is exactly the kind of thing that will undermine your
> > effectiveness in talking to anyone but a small group of those who
> > already agree with you on absolutely everything.
> >
> Well, I am quite content to have people hate my guts. My models are
> Satan, Lillian Hellman and Alex Cockburn, not Robert Alda and Phil
Donohue.
>
> >  If we stoop to _ad hominem_ arguments rather than trying to present

> > rational arguments against our opponents, it will stay that way.
> >
> Who is "we", white man?
>
> --
>
> Louis Proyect
> www.marxmail.org
>
>

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx