Comments on: Mugabe and Mamdani http://blog.z-word.com/2008/12/mugabe-and-mamdani/ Commentary about Zionism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism and the conflict in the Middle East Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:15:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5-RC1.1 By: Michael B http://blog.z-word.com/2008/12/mugabe-and-mamdani/#comment-2520 Michael B Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:59:04 +0000 http://blog.z-word.com/?p=668#comment-2520 Intellectual status, ability, ascendency, etc. has literally nothing to do with moral/ethical roots and sensibilities. They can coincide, but they are not root and branch related; they are "genetically" very different. So nothing Mamdani says is surprising, imo to the contrary since he reflects borrowings from a certain fashionable, contemporary, ideological climate in order to justify his moral insolvency. Of course that is to preach, in a particular sense, rather than to intellectualize, but that style is used for several reasons, one of which is that Mamdani's style itself is a preachment, albeit at a meta-level rather than more overtly. Intellectual status, ability, ascendency, etc. has literally nothing to do with moral/ethical roots and sensibilities. They can coincide, but they are not root and branch related; they are “genetically” very different. So nothing Mamdani says is surprising, imo to the contrary since he reflects borrowings from a certain fashionable, contemporary, ideological climate in order to justify his moral insolvency.

Of course that is to preach, in a particular sense, rather than to intellectualize, but that style is used for several reasons, one of which is that Mamdani’s style itself is a preachment, albeit at a meta-level rather than more overtly.

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