Au contraire. I think you have given up on making the world a better place.
I have not. Speaking for myself, only, I don't think that you can do that to
a great degree within the parameters you accept. If you had lived in slavery
times, you would have written off the abolitionists as mad dreamers and
extremists who would never affect anything because their radical politics
excluded them from serious politics. You would have been wrong, too. My
reading of our society is that there are social divisions that allow for,
demand even, going beyond the limits that you think bind us, that the iron
cage is a lot more fragile than you think.
Self expression is the least of it: if I thought I could improve the world
by sinking into the democrats, embracing the butchers, I would. I am not too
good for that. There is vileness I would not commit, but getting out the
vote for Democrat isn't where I would draw the line in principle. The thing
is, Brad, I tried it, I really did--I spent most of the 80s doing grassroots
DP work in the Rainbow Coalition and in the Ann Arbor DP, and what it taught
me is that if you have a mass movement or a community orgainizatiuon with
you, you don't need the DP, because if you a re strong enough it will try to
claim credit for things it refusedto support, and if you don;t, you might as
well not bother, because all the DP will do for you is offer you chances to
prostitutes your political ideals for the reward of being in the aprty.
Besides, Brad, you never addressed the point I made earlier, that people
like me will never be admitted to the DP power circles anyway because of our
past,unless we make a Great Renunciation and become real right wingers to
show that we really have renounced the reasons that brought us into politics
in the first place. From a purely selfish point of view, as well as from the
point of view of effectiveness, there's nothing there for us, isn't that
right?
--jks
>From: Brad DeLong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [PEN-L:4190] Re: Re: Re: Stop the name calling
>Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 07:53:57 -0800
>
>>Brad, hang it up. The thing is, we don't accept your iron cage. We
>>don't accept defeat. We won't go away. Maybe we're mad, whether
>>happy or not, but you won't make nice but unhappy liberals out of us.
>
>So you agree that for you politics is a means of self-expression,
>rather than an attempt to make the world a better place?
>
>
>Brad DeLong
>
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