Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Pierce T . Wetter III]

On Jul 12, 2004, at 5:24 PM, Frank T. Pohlmann wrote:

> >   How come whenever I read something from some
> > university professor who
> > doesn't have a clue, he's always a professor of
> > "International
> > Relations" or "Middle Eastern Studies"? It really
> > bugs me that people
> > in other countries always insist on reading our nut
> > jobs instead of our
> > more thoughtful writers.
>
> Huh? And they are? I have rather bad news for you in
> this regard. I happen to have done quite a bit of work
> in Middle Eastern Studies and I keep in contact with
> some of my old teachers.

 Have you done much traveling to the Middle East just
out of curiosity?

 My criticism of most MES guys is that their knowledge
of Middle Eastern history seems limited to Said's Orientalism
which was a political tome masquerading as history, it actually
had several large historical errors. But don't get me started,
or I'll start going off about how Karl Marx ruined the study
of history by making theory more important then facts.

> They tell me that it is
> virtually impossible for them to cooperate with any of
> those thoughtful writers in academia and the media
> generally, since they are afraid of saying anything
> critical or something that could be construed as
> critical of the Bush junta. Also, cooperation with
> foreign scholars or talking to foreign media is
> frowned upon.

 I always see that as delusions of grandeur, that the
Bush Administration has nothing better to do then worry
about some university professor.

 There are university professors going around calling
Bush a Nazi in my local town. Very few of us care...
> Those "thoughtful writers" have mostly been silenced.

 ??? Subscribe to Foreign Affairs. www.foreignaffairs.org


> Sure, there are plenty of more liberal-minded people
> in the US and I try to read them. But they have no
> influence I can perceive.

 Being "liberal-minded" does not necessarily make you
thoughtful.

 Pierce