Book: Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America Chapters: A Debate Revisited / On Ward Churchill's “Pacifism as Pathology” Author: Michael Ryan Published: 2017 / PM Press
I have little to say on this essay (written in 2016), but I have to wonder why the updates these old men keep making include varying degrees of misogyny. This is footnote 6 in 'A Debate Revisited':
In these heady days of irritatingly diversionary and pointless political correctness, it behooves me stress that I have nothing against either mothers or people who fuck them.
I mean, I don't have to wonder. It's also perplexing because they actually somewhat engaged with feminist understandings and critiques, only to... later blow them off? (Honestly, if they say nothing about their frustrations for political correctness, they would fare better because no one would pay attention for that.)
I also just don't understand his vision of what the world was then. I don't want to quote that section, but I just don't get where he was.
In 'On Ward Churchill':
One such deformation is the increasing tendency for arrest and the presumed incumbent publicity to become ends unto themselves. Within this framework, the number of arrests one has amassed becomes the proof of one’s revolutionary commitment and credentials. This process, particularly rampant among men, where civil disobedience becomes a form of nonviolent machismo, is appropriately described by Judy Costello: “I believe in noncooperation and civil disobedience, but in practice I have seen men use these tools as weapons—seeing who can suffer the most, counting up jail records, feeding on the glory of being able to suffer more.”
Clearly, we recognize the right of women to respond to physical and psychological aggression using whatever means are necessary, up to and including armed or violent self-defense or retaliation.
Just some interesting things that appear in the book where Ward Churchill's essay is. No idea why they could be important for something else. [/sarcasm]