Comments on: Saturday at the protest

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:53:04 +0000

Heh…sounds good?? Will I need to bring security with me?

It wasn’t even meant back-handedly. Surely we can agree that holding views based on your own thinking and search for truth is nobler than holding a view for purely selfish reasons and self-interest. That’s all I was trying to say.

By: elainemeyer

elainemeyer — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:28:47 +0000

so….drinks the weekend of the 5th??

By: hm

hm — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:35:25 +0000

i’ve gotten some back-handed compliments in my day (“your hair is like a small rodent”), but that takes the cake!

thanks?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:32:59 +0000

I’m sorry my last comment has been misunderstood. It was an allusion to Benjamin Franklin’s famous aphorism: “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.” It was intended as a compliment to the stances on principle exhibited here. For an example of persuasion by interest, the story on Hillary taking advice from the President’s officials on how to carry on in Iraq after the election is a pretty good one.

By: elainemeyer

elainemeyer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:25:38 +0000

Uh, Chris, I think you need to tone down the condescension a little bit on the last thing you said. I think–or thought that we could at least establish that we are reasonable people who can think critcially and find your comment to veer into ad hominem.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:10:13 +0000

I apologize for assuming you did, hm. However, it was not clear whom you were talking about.

As for persuasion, that was not my intent. If it had been, I would have appealed to your interests rather than your intellect.

By: hm

hm — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:59:53 +0000

I was NOT calling US soldiers mercenaries.
I am referring to Blackwater et al, 180,000 of whom are in Iraq and who are subject to neither Iraq nor US nor international law or codes of military justice and who kill civilians with impunity.

As for the rest, I remain unpersuaded.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:37:08 +0000

Actually, I could care less about “repression” in the classroom or anywhere else in this country (“repression” being different than actual repression). But there’s little debate about whether academia is dominated by the left. Anyway, that’s a completely different argument for another day. However, it reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xd_zkMEgkI

I wasn’t doubting what you were reading about the Iranian mini-series. I was saying that the article you read was incorrect.

By: elainemeyer

elainemeyer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:16:07 +0000

I think you have lost some perspective on our education system because of your frustration with certain ideological views that you encounter in texts and the classroom. Because I have not done a whole lot of research into education historically or today, I am mainly being anecdotal when I say that I have rarely felt repressed by any sort of academic establishment. In fact, students I have met from other nations have often commented on how much freedom of thought and expression American students are bequeathed in our classrooms, especially in a university setting.

As a history major, I encountered a few big egos who may have enforced a hegemonic adherence to their interpretations of history, but in general, I was pushed to think critically and engage many different interpretations of the history, and yes, free of political or ideological motivation.

I do thank you for clearing up a bit about that mini-series, though I don’t think I read the articles that portrayed it as sympathetic to Jews incorrectly (i didn’t just make that up!), and I do agree that the last thing we need is to invade Iran because we’ve decided they’re all anti-Semitic. Look what good that view did us on Iraq.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:43:11 +0000

hm,

I apologize for not thanking you for the offer of a beverage.

As for press releases, most protests attract the media like flies. If anything, their biases favor conflict and outrage over anything else.

As for your characterization of our soldiers as “mercenaries”, I have very little to say that would be polite, other than to say that the actual mercenaries in Iraq have come from Syria, Iran, and beyond.

As for Code Pink disrupting the Heritage foundation event, that is exactly the type of hyperpartisan attitude that has produced today’s political divisiveness. I disapprove of Code Pink’s conduct as I would if a bunch of YAF members overtook the stage at one of Code Pink’s rallies.

Ahmadinejad: The issue at hand was the allegedly sympathetic Iranian miniseries. There was nothing right-wing about what I translated — the article was from Der Spiegel for pete’s sake!!! So I would ask you to argue the issue at hand, please.

As for today being more repressive, I agree. But it’s been mostly a cultural form of repressiveness that encourages groupthink in our education system and stifles any form of creativity other than what is approved and acceptable by the former anti-establishment that is now the establishment.