From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Aug 04 2001 - 17:36:09 MDT
Lee said
>P.S. Standing challenge to any of you liberals out there:
>top that! Confess how you have articulated to yourself
>something as explosive as "Fred Reed's piece is racist"
>but with the shoe on the other foot, and how you, even
>though it was exceedingly painful, had to give huge aid
>and comfort to your ideological opponents. (P.P.S. I
>don't think any of them will.)
Um, Lee, who do you think of as a "liberal"? You know a lot about my ethical
and political views by now. Do I count? The word "liberal" tends to mean
something different over here and it has many different nuances
historically.
Also, who on this list counts as one of my ideological opponents? Daniel,
Jerry and Mike because they are (I think) full-on libertarians whereas I
have some libertarian tendencies but also a lot of theoretical and practical
concerns about formal libertarian systems of thought? Samantha, who has a
tendency to spirituality whereas I am a self-confessed ferocious atheist?
You because you seem to have a social conservative streak whereas I don't?
I have often defended people who are my "opponents", in various senses, or
gone out of my way to give credit to them or their ideas where it is due.
I'm not sure I can give an absolute killer on-list example, but I think the
attitude I have taken to such "opponents" belies the implication of your "I
don't think any of them will". Actually, this looking for credit in our
opponents and their ideas is one way that we grow intellectually.
Your comment was probably not directed at me, but I'm sure Olga, Damien and
so on (if they are the "liberals" you meant) could all make similar
observations about themselves and their attitudes.
Puzzled
Russell
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