[LMB] Convert and quotation

[B. Ross Ashley]

On Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:01:36 -0400, "Paula Lieberman" <paal at gis.net> 
wrote: ----- Original Message ----- From: "B. Ross Ashley" 
<redlion at sff.net>

>> The one I tend to use besides this one is from Eric Flint's _Mother of 
>> Demons_:
>>
>> "You cannot conquer evil, Nukurren. Evil is not a thing from beyond, a foe 
>> to be
>> vanquished. It is a thing which emerges from within the life of a people. 
>> It can
>> only be changed, by changing that life."
>  
>

> I've seen sentiments similar to that in other books.   Mother of
> Demons isn't a book I remember much of, other than it's not one I
> think of when recommending books to other people, Flint's writing
> doesn't do much for me. 
> As for politics, he's a Marxist or something like that. IIRC from
> what I've heard directly and indirectly, he grew up in coal country
> and the rotten treatment of the miners and the greedieness and
> callousness and shrifting of things like mine safety, on an economy
> which was all coal mine based, strongly directed his worldview and
> perspectives.  The view of ~evil...emerged from within the life of
> a people...can only be changed, by changing that life" I expect is a
> fairly direct representation of his own beliefs and values.

Well, yes, probably. It represents mine as well, having grown up in small-town North Florida in an agricultural and forestry economy in the 50s and 60s with the experience of institutionalised racism all around me. No surprise that I share a lot of Eric's viewss (for what it's worth, each of us thinks the other is a heretic. Hmmm ... would the differences between the two streams of Trotskyist thought and action breach the ban on US politics?)

-- 
B. Ross Ashley
http://www.brashley46.livejournal.com
http://brashley46.no-ip.info
"It would be too painful to think that there are worlds somewhere
where I got everything right."  Sulien, in _The King's Name_, by Jo Walton
Registered Linux user # 402119