On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, James Farmelant wrote:
> It is also interesting to note how postmodernism has at times
> been explicitly used for reactionary purposes as Meera Nanda
> has shown in the case of India. There pomo was originally
> introduced into the country by leftist intellectuals but it
> then found favor among rightwing Hindu nationalists who found
> it convenient a convenient device for bashing left for promoting
> Enlightenment ideals which could be stigmatized as "colonialist"
> and the like. It was especially appealing since it could be used
> to place a "progressive" veneer on leftist bashing.
>
So when Trent Lott says that socialist activists in the U. S. are "out of touch with reality", we can clearly see how realist philosophical assumptions are a political tool of the right. In fact, if you want to play this "what is the philosophical position of left bashers" game, far more of them are naive realists than pomo fans.
But the game's silly in the first place: any philosophical position can be tied to any political position. You just have to be clever enough.
Miles Jackson cqmv at odin.cc.pdx.edu