tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post938545260085045179..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: A CLARIFICATIONRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-40901263259029607822017-02-28T11:56:10.184-05:002017-02-28T11:56:10.184-05:00Dude Diogenes,
I didn't think that you were i...Dude Diogenes,<br /><br />I didn't think that you were impugning me. You were simply questioning my use of the word "innocent". Thank you for your kind words of praise about my comments. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20493634428884704872017-02-28T10:27:49.429-05:002017-02-28T10:27:49.429-05:00s. wallerstein: Apologies, I certainly didn't ...s. wallerstein: Apologies, I certainly didn't mean to impugn you! I find your comments some of the most perceptive and informative on this blog.<br /><br />Yes, "The Fall" is probably where Camus most famously discusses guilt vs innocence, and that's part of it, but I was more thinking of "The Rebel", where Camus brings up the yogi and the commissar. Just as we cannot morally be murderers (commissars), neither can we morally be yogis, who live on a mountain top "above it all" (so to speak).<br /><br />So, in the context of the DNC, I don't think it's somehow morally wrong to try to use the DNC bureaucracy as opposed to trying to build a more pure third party. Since ideological purity will result in pointless purges of group members (the commissar) or ineffectual candidates (yogis who try to live above it all), I reject it in terms of what maybe could be called a "principled pragmatism". In short, reducing Republican party power is more important at this time than maintaining an ideologically pure Democrat party. Trump is not Hitler, but Communists and Capitalists joined forces to defeat him. In that respect, I welcome (almost) anyone who opposes Trump.TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-50288180235840709632017-02-28T09:31:42.530-05:002017-02-28T09:31:42.530-05:00Dude Diogenes,
I'm not claiming to be a saint...Dude Diogenes,<br /><br />I'm not claiming to be a saint or a model of virtue. I agree that none of us are totally innocent in the sense that Camus refers to (The Fall?). <br /><br />However, I was using the word "innocent" not to signify "without guilt", but to mean "ingenuous", "easily duped by the smart guys", "unaware of the unwritten rules", "unaware of the real intentions and motives, having to do with power, of most politicians and easily taken in by their lofty discourse".<br /><br />I'll have to reread Camus's the Fall. I'll put it on my reading list.s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-11328455988043563462017-02-28T09:00:46.326-05:002017-02-28T09:00:46.326-05:00s.wallerstein: I agree with much of what you say. ...s.wallerstein: I agree with much of what you say. I would disagree with you about innocence, though. Riffing off Camus, I don't believe that any of us are innocent (though obviously we're not all equally guilty).TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-10209307232483530172017-02-28T07:58:33.824-05:002017-02-28T07:58:33.824-05:00The people who run the Democratic Party are smarte...The people who run the Democratic Party are smarter than you and I are. I don't mean that they understand Kant better than you do, but that they have years and years of experience outwitting and conning innocent souls like you and me, promising one thing and delivering another, destroying rivals in infights that you and I would not dirty our hands to engage in, bending the rules for their own benefit and those of their pals and donnors. They have too much at stake in terms of power and money to yield "their Party" to a bunch of do-gooders and egg-heads like you and I with a smile and a handshake. If they lose on paper, they'll sabotage everything we do to make sure that their triumphal comeback is rapid. <br /><br />They'll always win because they're smarter and less scrupulous than you and I are, unless we start over with new alternative movements, organize other innocents and potential reborn innocents. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-83107212009707627862017-02-28T07:44:24.635-05:002017-02-28T07:44:24.635-05:00TDD,
She was on Maher too. So frustrating.TDD,<br />She was on Maher too. So frustrating.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-33025089764333030882017-02-28T05:47:51.010-05:002017-02-28T05:47:51.010-05:00Why am I so pessimistic? I just heard a Muslim imm...Why am I so pessimistic? I just heard a <b>Muslim immigrant woman</b> on NPR who supported Trump, thinks he's been doing good work regarding jobs since taking office (no specifics offered), and she <i>hopes</i> that Trump will speak out against rising hate crimes against Native Americans, and Jewish, Muslim, and other religious minorities. <br /><br />Anyone who still holds any hope that Trump will "be a president for all Americans" is, quite frankly, delusional. I cannot comprehend how any thinking person can still hold on to hope that Trump will become "presidential" (or that he can change in any way for the better). What world do these people live in?!TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-88063404525498055112017-02-28T05:10:53.794-05:002017-02-28T05:10:53.794-05:00I enjoy your metaphor about moving into a house an...I enjoy your metaphor about moving into a house and superstition, Prof.<br /><br />To reiterate and elucidate what I meant in the previous thread, unless there were to be a renewal of civic engagement the likes of which the US (and perhaps any current major world power) has never seen, the Democratic party is the only game in town. Until such a time as that utopian dream is achievable (i.e. never), I can see no way forward (however distasteful) except if the Democratic party can regain power nationally and in the States. <br /><br />I think that will require giving up all hope of ideological purity. I would vastly prefer that all Democrats were progressive/liberal/socialist/whatever, but I would support a Blue Dog Democrat, as long as they were decidedly against Trump's agenda. (Support in an election where, say, they are running in a deep red district and would likely have a higher chance at winning than a Bernie-esque Dem. Maybe that's just triangulation under a different name, but as I expressed in the other thread, my hope for the party and the country is basically non-existent, so if it's sacrificing anything, it's a small sacrifice.)TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.com