[lit-ideas] Re: Why us?

  • From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 00:48:42 -0700

Well, John, we're squeezing the last of the juice out of this lemon, but would it have helped if I had said that it served no useful purpose in the present instance?

If I say that in 'She became aware of the fact that it was ten o'clock,'
the prepositional phrase serves no useful purpose, it isn't clear that
I need to say what would serve a useful purpose, for the answer is: nothing.

As I am, very generally speaking, one of the supporters of your cause it's a bit odd to be told that by leading me think you are saying something irrelevant to how one might reflect on the London bombings
you are thereby keeping me 'whipped up.'


Robert Paul
-----------

John McCreery wrote:

On 2005/07/10, at 12:25, Robert Paul wrote:

Pointing
to Bush's failings serves no useful purpose.

What would count as a "useful purpose"?

As a political activist, I find it useful in several ways, keeping supporters whipped up, damaging the reputation of the "at best deluded and incompetent and at worst malign" leader of our opposition, etc. In an Aristotlean vein, I might argue that attacking the character of the opposition is to usefully deploy the third of the classic rhetorical tools.

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