The Pinochet issue is not just a sideline. I read that the greatest concern
of the British government was that he would be killed, on the way to the
airport, by 'left-wing terrorists'. And I read today that Margaret Thatcher
presented him with a gift to celebrate this triumph of the rule of law.
The point is this: 'critical' academics take their political philosophy from
Thatcher and Madeleine Albright (democracy, free speech, rule of law, free
press, free elections, open society, fighting totalitarianism). They are
horrified at the thought of 'left-wing terrorism'. How can they produce theory
which questions the existing social and economic order?
This is a problem in geography, sociology, and related fields. If the starting
point for research is the values of Thatcher/NATO, which are themselves the
essential values of market-democracy, what is then 'critical'?
--
Paul Treanor
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/dem.wrong.html
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