3 times W-S, WS, Global mad[ness]

Wed, 5 Mar 1997 17:02:15 -0500 (EST)
A. Gunder Frank (agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca)

In re Tom Hall and Mark Selden on Boswell, Blaut, Frank and Co.:
Just to get EVERYBODY mad, if only by pigeon - holing them, or even worse
by omitting them [either out of respect, or uncertainty, or
forgetfulness], I will make a modest proposal to attempt / or modest
attempt to propose / squeezing people into Al Bergesen's procurstean beds
[so you can get mad at him too - and/or defelct some madness from me- ,
and if you come to ISA and to the party at my house on March 22, you can hit
us both right here]

You may recall that in Steve Sanderson's [Ed.book] CIVLIZATIONS AND WORLD
SYSTEMS,
Al Bergesen wrote chapter 7 "Lets Be Frank About World History"
HIS title, not mine/AGF!!
[his title in the festschrift for me was MY title not his!!]

In his Chapter 7, section 2 on "Challenging Today's Social Science Models"
Al offers 3 "options" [madnesses?]

1.denial ws = deniers stick/stuck in the mud.
The procusatean bed is quite comfortable,"I'm alright Jack"
Al has only one star witness. Bob Brenner in representation of traditional
marxists, modernizationists. society-levelists.

2. stretching = stretchers try to stretch the evidence to
fit it into the W-S procurstean paradigm bed or to stretch the
procusteanan bed to make it wider so more evidence can fit on it more
[un?] comfortably = I'm a bit uncomfortable here, so I'm gonna wiggle a
little - John [not Jack?] and/or I'll just hyphenate myself into 2...n
parts.

Al "incorporates" : "Wallerstein, Amin,Chase-Dunn and Hall, have all
stretched"

3. Letting go = letgoers of old hyphenated paradigm models altogether
= we better get another bed/bedroom/house/neighborhood/ whole "world system"
= NO hypen!

Inhabitants according to Al!: Frank & Gills [not to mention Al himself!?]

Well - can/should we use Al's 3 procustean madnesses to pigeon-hole fit
the debaters here into his 3 procusteaan beds?

Or Should we let each Goldilock try and chose his/her own bed, "make it"
and sleep in it?

Or should I risk the madness of getting eaten alive by helping some of
you out there into your respective beds?
A fortiori risk in giving some co-authors a = my[?] "choice" of beds:
Some stay comfortably in the same bed with each other,
and others would prefer to "chose" different beds! -- if given the
choice!!

[What does that do to the partnership? God forbid that I be an accomplice
in breaking up beautiful co-marriages]!!!]

We have to stretch Al's bedroom a bit, to accomodate the IW W-S [with
hyphen!] from the word GO! [that leaves Bob Brenner and Co" out in the
"traditional" Eurocentric graveyard, where Jim Blaut already put them in
his THE COLONIZERS MODEL OF THE WORLD and more recently in his "8
Eurocentric Historians"]

Then , the 1,2,3 categories become sleeping places for [among
respondents/participants/fellow travellers so far]:

1. Denialists [principals only, there may be soooooo many out there]:

Wallerstein ["Hold the Tiller Firm" - Chapt 9 in Sanderson book],
Boswell,
Goldfrank
Barbones
Whiteneck
Elson
Rozov
[And on 1500 break C word]
Sanderson
Blaut

2. Stretchers [of the formerly comfy ol' paradigm]

Blaut - a bit, no more!
Sanderson -pre 1500 WS and post 1500 Japan
Hall - and Chase Dunn not heard from yet
Arrighi - not yet hear from but name taken in vain
Modelsky
Thompson
Misra [co-author not in same bed with Boswell!]
Gills? - not again heard from, but taking a couple steps back when last
seen to become co-author not in bed with Frank?

3. Let goers [of the UNcomfy ol' paradigm]
= Let'S go'ers? - to construct a NEW and better paradigm [thank
you, Mark Selden!]

Frank
Bergesen
Barendse: welcome to a hands on man from another world!
Selden: special welcome aboard to an ol'china hand who has never felt
comfy in W-S land!
and especially welcome as co-author of, but not in bed with
Arrighi, who whiggles in W-S land and now rejects Kondratieffs
altogether [personal note from AGF: It was GA who put ME onto
the present 1967 onwards one in 1970/71!, credit where credit is
due!! GA might now say "discredit"?
Denemark - not heard from yet here, but yes elsewhere
Pomeranz - inhabitant of two other cyber-nets only
Wong - ditto?
Gills - are you still with us?

Concluding synopsis /Synoptic Conclusion
for PRACTICAL PURPOSES:

ALL of the above [and others] are already invited on Saturday March 20
to MY house at

96 Asquith Avenue
Toronto
Telef 416-972 0616, fax 972 0071

[map to be supplied at formal WHS sessions/s &/or IPE business meeting]

1. at 2 PM to working meeting of the WSH sub-section of the IPE section of
ISA [agenda prepared by Denemark & Chase-Dunn, and/but the above
mad discourse/ 3 [dis] course madness could be added to the menu
implicitly, or explicitly, or none of the above, or all of the above

2. At 6-ish pm, dinner either here or at [excellent] Chinese restaurant
nearby. Do you want tables labled D=enialists, S=tretchers, L=etgoers?

3. At/from 8-ish pm PARTY at my house to kingdom come:

[Do you want drinks labled
D-eetotalers:stay where you are?
S-lush enough to let you stretch & wiggle, just a little
L-iquor hard enough to let you go to another [paradigm] world]?

But in that case what do i offer ordinary mortals also already
invited and some accepted to come to the party, inclusing some publishers
editors?

CHEERS!
gunder