on Whiteneck and Boswell

Sat, 1 Mar 1997 15:05:03 -0500 (EST)
A. Gunder Frank (agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca)

1. Wherever does Whiteneck get such ideas about the force or even role of
ideas?
2. Where does Whiteneck get the idea that nobody else had such ideas?
3. How about "subjecting" some of these/his ideas to a bit of a reality
check?
4. It would be nice if Misra would also speak/write here for Boswell &
Misra or at least for Misra, from whom I get the impresssion [my idea?] that she
does not altogether share Boswell's ideas about world reality
5. The Baltic is one thing, Eaurasia a rather bigger different thing.
To expand 3 plus times from virtually nothing is not much, and lests look
at how this "expansion" was achieved = with American money.
6. For this European "expansion" to spell EXPANSION, Boswell would have
to
A. Compare it with the "expansion" opf others, eg of India, China, etc.
etc., but of course since TB does not LOOK at those, he can't compare
anything, and
B. Look/see also how much the European "expansion" was as a share of the
rest of the world's "expansion" and/or how big a share Europe got thanks
to its "expansion". Since TB does not look elsewehere, of course he cant
see that, nor realize how little it was.
7. To say that Europe "exapanded" to take up a big position in Southeast
Asia, not to mention in East/South/or even West - and Central - Asia, is
.... ok, lets call it balderdash instead of BS!
8. It is not that Terry and I "dont agree" - except perhaps about
terminology ... and i just [con]ceeded on that! - its that Terry refuses
to look at the facts. As I said, he insists again and again to use his
magnifying glass to look under the European streetlight, and he refuses to
look anywhere else in the real WORLD SYSTEM.

Fortunately, this non-"disgreement" does not affect our friendship, and
Terry's research helps enlighten us about what can be seen under the
European streetlight, but alas it can NOT enlighten us much about what
went on in the world as a whole, and it distorts even what we can see in
Europe & the Baltic & Atlantic; because it does not take account of the
whole nor of how that whole shaped the [marginal] European part.

But there is little point in repeating this same litany over and over
again, or even of demonstrating it empirically, and if T erry would not
use my name "in vain" I would not respond either.

love and xxxs
gunder