Kevin Gowen wrote:

> I see that Ernie has joined the John Hyphen-Name school of source
selection.

What you don't see, though - or at least don't care about - is that such
sources (Ernest's on chikan and mine on US imperialism) represent a
perspective - not necessarily one to be espoused, but one which a body of
people nevertheless believe.

Now, your attitude appears to be "we don't need to consider these
perspectives because they come from left-wing or radical or loony sources",
whereas I'm more interested in looking into how it is that people acquire
these kinds of perspectives (and I'd have to say, to me, yours is just one
more - often loony - perspective). Simply rejecting them out of hand because
you don't like the source is unhelpful. There may or may not be some
substance behind their views. If there is, I'd like to know about it. If
there isn't, and they've simply dug a hole for themselves, I'd like to see
how they dug the hole in order to work out how to engage in effective
dialogue with people with such views.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com