Ad hominem Baruch Kimmerling, my friend.
(1) I'm not a Jewish patriot in Hungary (certainly it'd be great but
boring) but - I hope - a human being and a Jew in the world, a
cosmopolitan and an inhabitant of a multicultural metropolis where I
live.
(2) Baruch, you are one of the most influental scholars in Yisrael and
therefore on the stage not a scholar but a man - a very human being -
who makes policy. You cannot tell anything only as a 'scholar'. If you
don't like Sharon's policy, it doesn't mean that this is not a war and
databases aren't and aren't to be utilised as strategic, intelligence
and military sources. And in a war everybody must take a position on one
of the sides. This is a global war and as times go on, neutrality and
moralizing looses its place, even in the circles of highly educated
sociologists as well.
(3) Dear sociologists, please utilise as many databases as possible but
don't think the way you collect and/or utilise them is value free. It is
not. And if it is a criterion of morality, democracy and peace to make
databases that are accessible to everybody, don't say "it was financed
by the European Union". - So what? What about the media databases
sponsored by anybody that show and teach young Palestinians how to
commit suicide actions? Shouldn't we protest against the Palestinian
utilising of welfare-state electronic products and PR skills for such
goals? Of course as - let's say - sociologists of communications?
Dear list members, sorry for disturbing you with my notes. Good bye!
Gabor Varnai (Mishehu ben Mishehu)
Baruch Kimmerling wrote:
>
> On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, Gabor Varnai wrote:
>
> > OK, but please take into account that there are no databases which are
> > not utilized as strategic, intelligence and military sources whomever
> > finances it. And if you want, protest against this fact. Afterwards you
> > can make a peace prophecy.
>
> Any data base can be used (for welfare) or abused (surveillance) and may
> threat privacy by the state and its agencies. If Mr. Varnai wants to
> suggest a motion hat we the sociologists cease to collaborate with any
> process of official data collection - this is a point for separate
> discussion.
> But here we facing a completely other issue. The issue is that since the
> Sharon's government raised to power in Israel, the Israeli military are
> used to dismantle systematically every Palestinian institution in order to
> regain the control over all the territory of the Land of Israel/Palestine.
>
> So, sociologists as sociologists have three options:
> 1.To raise professional voice against a small fragment of this policy,
> directly connected to our profession.
> 2. To take position as human beings against this (immoral, in my own
> view) policy.
> 3. To ignore the whole issue for various reasons.
> I'll opt to the first option as sociologist and for the second as a Jewish
> citizen of Israel and a human being.
> Baruch Kimmerling
>
> PS: I hope Mr. Varnai's attention was not to detract the issue to another
> direction (it is great to be a Jewish patriot in Hungary...:-) ).
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