Re: [OT] free Cindy Sheehan!

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think Mao used it to justify China's tilt toward the US, because the
US was better than the dreaded USSR during the Sino-Soviet split
years. However, I'll have to check my rusty memory banks.

It's true that the statement is abstract. But it would have been
better to avoid such abstractions and say "In a bad spot, sometimes
you have to ally with what would normally be seen as bad guys." (If
you _really_ thought that Bush was Hitler during 2004, not voting for
Kerry but allying with him would be justified.)

On 8/26/05, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Jim Devine wrote:
> >
> >
> > this is proof, once again, that Chairman Mao's dictum that "the enemy
> > of my enemy is my friend" is total and utter BS.
> 
> I don't remember Mao saying exactly that. I do remember something like
> it, though I can't remember the exact wording, and when I read it I both
> disagreed and _also_ saw, in the context in which he said it, that it
> made some sense. Something like it was, of course, the foundation of the
> United Front Against the Japanese invacion. And it is easy to make up
> hypothetical (but reasonable) situations in which it holds. If a
> purse-snatcher scares off a would-be rapist, for example. I would say
> the dictum (as you phrase it) is neither right nor wrong in the
> abstract. Its whole meaning depends on context.
> 
> Carrol
> 


-- 
Jim Devine
"An economic forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower: they
don't win many accuracy contests, but they keep the crowd's
attention." -- Anonymous