"Meet the New New Left: bold, fun, and stupid, " in TNR

[Peter K.]

>   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