> Well, if the Washington Post, apparently, is leaning towards "sympathy",
>for the protests, the New Republic, is fulfilling it's usual role of
>policing the parameters of acceptable discourse, all in it's trademark,
>smirky style.
> Michael Pugliese
Oh. My. God. I hate the New Republic. (although, the picture is funny) I'm attending the next biggy protest with a giant sign reading THE NEW REPUBLIC SUCKS MY ASS
One of the many things I liked about Seattle and D.C. is that they drove the propagandists into a lather. They must be thinking "Crap! I thought we had stamped all this out. Where is this dissent coming from?!"
from the N.R. piece: "Read a copy of Z magazine, the anarchist's organ of choice, and you'll find advice about protest tactics--not intellectual ruminations."
no mention of Chomsky, though, who is Marty Peretz's bete noire. (although I LOVED it, way back in '95 when on CSPAN Washington Journal Brian Lamb deadpanly asked Hitchens to describe the New Republic and he immediatley replied, with his own smirk, "wavering, unprincipled, centrist sheet.")
and no mention of D.C.'s finest, but of course some standard fare "The anarchists, like their '60s predecessors, basically represent a revolt of the affluent."
and another echt New Republic line: "The problem is that mainstream anarchists--in order to avoid sectarian conflict, and as a result of their laissez-faire, decentralized spirit--won't condemn the violence of their bandanna-wearing fellows."
here's the New Republic's more conciliatory editorial:
http://www.tnr.com/050100/editorial050100.html
which DeLong could have written. It's as if the Cold War never happened. As if the First World never meddled in the Third World's affairs.
Bottom line is that the Cold War ended over 10 years ago. What ever happened to the peace dividend? The state of the world as it currently exists is what Capitalism has to offer. It's apologists will always point to corruption or to the so-called moral failings of the poor to excuse what Capitalism hasn't accomplished (my personal favorite: if only the first world would open it's markets to the poor countries - I say fuck it, let's reduce all tariffs everywhere to zero and see what happens - but then there are those pesky non-tariff "trade barriers"), but I believe more and more people are realizing that humanity with all of its innovation can do better.
Peter