>Anyone else happen to see the review of Thomas Geoghegan's The Secret
>Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life in last week's
>New York Observer? Depressing. Sample follows:
>"Mr. Geoghegan believes that in a properly operating democracy working
>people and their sympathizers would vote for better wages."
Thanks for putting this up. I hadn't noticed it.
Actually, that line is not inaccurate--except that "properly functioning democaracy" elides the whole argument of the book, which is that a properly functioning democracy is a much more complicated thing than it's made out to be. It requires cities, to begin with (he says has some wonderful passages on the idiocy of suburban life) and theater, and a sane electoral system that doesn't perpetuate the rotten boroughs of our two-seats-per-state Senate. Geoghegan also has some very acute things to say about regional politics. One of his observations is that "nationalization" has ben much more important than "gobalization"--that the real low-wage competition for Chicago has come from places like Alabama, not like Haiti.
Actualy I think it's one of the more important books on American politics to come out in a while. In his elliptical, anecdotal, self-indulgent way, Geoghegan is developing some powerful ideas about what gets called democratic will formation. And at its best his prose cannot be improved on. (Full disclosure: I did some research for the book.)
One other thing: Lipatz snidely references a play for which Geoghegan was "unable to summon investors or an audience" and makes this a metaphor for the state of the Left. In fact Aurora, Or Labor Law in the Bedroom* is going up this spring (anyone in Chicago should try to catch a performance). So maybe the Left has a future too.
Josh
* Actually it's just called Aurora.