Fukuyama on Faludi

Peter Kilander peterk at enteract.com
Sat Sep 25 12:42:30 PDT 1999



>Much as I detest Fukuyama, the above is a valid point: a narrative of
>'betrayal' is suggestive of nostalgia (contrary to history). Since I
>haven't read the Faludi book, I'm not sure she in fact lacks a proper
>historical perspective as Fukuyama says she does, however. (And it's
>certainly not that Fukuyama, unlike Faludi, possesses it as he implies with
>his self-congratulatory tone.)
>
>Yoshie

It seems to me Faludi is more interested in why the so-called white angry male insists on scapegoating (feminists, immigrants, minorities) which entails a feeling of betrayal. (give em all Prozac is my solution) I wonder if Chuck Grimes has read the book, cover to cover. I haven't, but I agree that one should always be on guard against nostalgia. (In regards to another thread about the state of the opposition - I believe Doug and Nathan commented on it - it should be acknowledged that feminism by and large has been succesful [except look at the makeup of Congress] and I agree with Doug and Yoshie that we're not organized enough yet, but on the positive side, it's good to see Indonesian students forcing the military to back down and it's good to see the students in Iran putting up quite a fight against the forces of reaction.) I wonder how much Faludi gets into the whole "Jihad vs. McWorld" idea where capitalism has been uprooting local communities and culture, commodifying and assimilating with a vengence(even Iran has been making noises about privatization); and I'm curious how much the author of that book - much, much better than Friedman's - delves into the topic of nostalgia.



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