Who's afraid of Strawman Waffle?

[Since Joytirmaya brings up the views of Peter Heehs to support his claim that he gives Sri Aurobindo a balanced treatment. I will add that biographers and historians - even good ones - are forced to select, disregard, and interpret facts which they consider important from their own perspective. Jyotirmaya Sharma’s perspective is no different. To anyone who has studied Sri Aurobindo in any depth at all it will be painfully obvious just how egregiously, Jyotirmaya selects his facts to fit his thesis... Due to these omissions by Jyotirmaya, almost the entire historical context is missing in which Aurobindo at times advocates taking a hard line with Muslim fundamentalist, in their intolerance of secular democracy. Is this not the setting up of a straw man thesis? 1:00 AM Response to Jyotirmaya Sharma by Rich Science, Culture & Integral Yoga on Sat 19 Aug 2006 07:33 AM PDT Permanent Link Posted to: Main Page - Book reviews]

[There are many veiled motives, some clearer than others, and most of them ignoble. Personal ambition, political agendas, sadistic pleasures, wounded egos, cultural chauvinism or inferiority, vendetta, accumulated ill-will and deep fears are all worthy candidates that vie for our consideration. Those who initiate violence are seldom "telling the whole story" and often the story they are telling is immaterial.
Reply Re: Explanation of my Stand wrt The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by Debashish on Wed 26 Nov 2008 12:36 AM PST Profile Permanent Link]

[The other problem is that this impulse for change, like everything else, can get mixed with other motives (as you note, see below), with group behaviors, with past beliefs, with wider political movements (such as the Hindutva movement, which I believe is related to this situation), with historical events (such as the campaign against the revision of Savitri, which I also believe is related to this situation). An argument is put forward for what seems a simple, spiritual matter, but it can be anything but... On a related note, the "ringleaders" should be named and known to the wider world. The practice of making accusations in secret, of anonymously slurring another person, has a long and dark history, and brings to mind the worst of McCarthyism in the United States, los desaparecidos in Latin America, and black limousines in Communist USSR. Re: Explanation of my Stand wrt The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by David Hutchinson on Wed 26 Nov 2008 06:24 AM PST Profile Permanent Link]

[One indication of the atmosphere of intimidation that Rich alludes to is that nowhere in these blogs do I see the names of the individuals who are actually behind this, nor the documents that have incited the situation. It does seem that people are afraid of something -- what might that be? Re: Explanation of my Stand wrt The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by David Hutchinson on Sat 29 Nov 2008 07:52 PM PST Profile Permanent Link]

[I can imagine. For I have lived in the American South through the mid-1960s, actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement at that time. I was involved then in the protests and arrests, looked into the eyes of hatred and intolerance, watching demagogues whip up the masses into a frenzy that fed into a lynch-mob mentality. And I have seen and lived through the divisive damage done to Auroville by those who refused to recognize the "civil rights" of AV residents after the Mother's passing. I experienced for myself then first-hand, the harassment, arrest, beating, jail and expulsion at the hands of one party; while being "excommunicated" by another for daring to call him out for the divisive and intolerant behavior he was inciting among his crusaders in Auroville. Yes, I know the damage that can be done when we turn "other" into "enemy" in the name of righteousness or purity or saving us from the infidels that would corrupt "our" Truth. Savitra speaks out on The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
on Fri 23 Jan 2009 08:34 AM PST Permanent Link]

By establishing a whipping boy, life becomes so easy and enjoyable. There can be endless talk about his misdeeds and all ills of the world can safely be attributed unto him. Finding friends who are equally worked up over him becomes effortless and a circle forms around the enemy’s enemy principle. Many a time it so happens that the heap of imagined crimes becomes more weighty than the actual and the combined zeal in criticism loses all sense of proportion. Skewed logic by setting up strawman tactics becomes the order of the day and warped arguments abound. Stray facts are piled up to substantiate predetermined charges. Wolfish sophisticated discourse employed for seeking legitimacy is even abandoned at a point. [TNM]