Goodbye to All That (англ.)

[avva]

Интересная статья американского журналиста Рона Розенбаума о том, почему он, лично покидает ряды американской левой. Разбор нескольких типичных примеров лево-радикального фанатизма в сегодняшней Америке. И в заключение, перефразировка Сегала --

I guess today, Left means never having to say you’re sorry.

Comments

Re:

[avva.livejournal.com]

I guess the problem is not that there are fools on the left; it's that the left has become nearly synonymous with the fools on the left (or so he thinks). The voice of the left, as expressed in most of the magazines of the left, in demonstrations of the left, in leftist academic thought, etc. etc. has become so shrill and hysterical, so reflexively anti- any American reaction to 9/11, so unthinkingly prejudiced first and foremost against the US and often so nakedly bigoted (as in the episodes Rosenbaum relates), that it's no longer possible for many people to subscribe to the same ideals as they did before and continue to identify themselves as members of the left at the same time. Or so Rosenbaum seems to think, and he counts Hitchens and himself among such people. I don't think his argument is as trivial as you make it out to be.

[cema.livejournal.com]

I don't think his argument is as trivial as you make it out to be.

Of course not. One thing is that the main bulk of the Left is moving; another thing is that the border between the Left and the Right is moving. Plus, there are many issues that each side has strong opinions on, and a person whose opinions differ on some issues (and who is independent enough to not feel a need to follow the party line) may prefer to stay unaffilliated. Even while feeling sympathetic to one side more than the other.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Дело говоришь.
И статья хорошая. Перекликается со статьёй Гейзеля "Закрученные влево".

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I understand all that, and I think he's being foolish (because, as b_k says below, he's angry, and I can understand his anger, but that's a separate issue). He's vastly overestimating the influence and preponderance of the "anti-American left," and in so doing he plays into the hands of the right. Yes, Chomsky's an idiot, but he's been an idiot for all those years that Ron was a (presumably) proud member of the Left. (Similarly, Saddam was just as "evil" back when the US gov't was supporting him and present hawks in Bush's administration were selling him weapons.) There are plenty of leftists who despise both Islamic murderers and the hypocritical Bush policy.

And what does is grand gesture mean anyway? Does he have a Left membership card he's going to burn on the steps of the Berkeley Student Union? (Where can I get one?) Is he going to start opposing the labor movement, picketing abortion centers, voting for Bushies? It just seems like a tantrum to me.

Steve