The recent rantings here sure make more lively reading but this
hey, you're either with us or agin us view of some who wrap themselves
'round the exploitation shroud is just as off-putting as the
chummy talk among the regulars. I take so much comfort in knowing
that there's someone to my left so ready to place a firm bootheel
in my face because I resist the image that I'm some snivelling
servant of the ruling class because I'm not some snivelling
brain-dead slave to the moral purity of someone further down
the political line. What kind of theory is being wielded here
that makes Doug Henwood's pitch just so much the first crack in
the wall that next comes the crass commercialism of some weasel
hawking ronco toaster-ovens cum stain removers. What kind of
theory is it that makes Gintis tantamount to some reformed sinner
running dog latch-key capitalist -- left alone and dangerous with
theoretical matches. What kind of theory is it that makes the
election of so many bootstepping brownshirts in the US nothing
more than that some trivial redistribution of office chairs
among factions of the capitalist party? Us folks on the left
or you folks on the left if I don't pass the litmus test of
praxis are swinging some blunt instruments for theory. The left
is sorely in need of some theoretical podiatrist that might alleviate
the foot-twitch that compells folks to jerk and kick whatever
animate thing to their right. With all due respect to the
horrors of brutal exploitation, its gonna be the neatest trick
to make a broad based appeal to folks but telling them that
their mere existence makes their hands drip with blood...
Dennis Breslin
