Doug Henwood wrote:
> I'm not talking about the need to ferret out spies and agents
> provocateurs. I'm talking about an intellectual impulse to scrutinize
> every statement for unorthodox sentiments or missing pledges of
> fealty.
The left offers few material rewards. As a result, we see former "leftists"
in power in German and Brazil. Many, many lesser positions are held by
former leftists. Very few rightists are tempted to move to the left.
Michael Lind, Arriana Huffington .... and not very far to the left either.
The only major economist that I know of who moved to the left was John
Gurley, once the editor of the AER. As a result, I think that there is a
sense of potential unreliability.
There is, however, an undeniable tendency to split and splinter in the
left. Umbrellas form only during emergencies -- e.g. the Vietnam war, and
then there were still splits.
In part, the problem of the left is more daunting. We want to create
something new. The right merely wants to strengthen something that already
exists -- corporate power, the police, ..... As this debate has shown, we
do not have a recipe or even a recipe for recipes. Justin and I, for
example, are at odds about our vision for the future, but we are both of the
left. If we cannot discuss our differences, which are hardly operational at
this moment -- we have considerable amount of time before we have to decide
the structure of a future socialist state -- how can we work together to
fight against the death penalty, environmental racism, or whatever issue
seems most pressing at the time.
> It's happened here about 10 times in the last week. Jim
> Devine tells me he's tired of my learning experiences. Fine. I'm
> going to step under a cone of silence on PEN-L for a while. If it
> weren't for all my sunk costs, I'd be tempted to give up on the left,
> whatever that is, entirely. Since I don't like that feeling, maybe
> the best thing to do is to avert my eyes for a few days.
>
> Doug
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
