(no subject)

LeoCasey at aol.com LeoCasey at aol.com
Fri Nov 3 18:23:43 PST 2000


Doug writes: << Two questions, Leo: 1) why can't women play this game too, and 2) what does this lurid scenario have to do with a sobersides like Nader? >>

A few women do play the game, but -- like gang banging -- it remains every bit a characteristically male adolescent piece of "rebellion" even with that female presence. The Rolling Stones did not call the song "Street Fighting People" for good reason. We could discuss what it is that makes such cultural rituals so characteristically male adolescent, but the fact that they are so, is, I believe, quite clear.

I am not sure the point has much of anything to do with Nader; it was a response to Chuck taking issue with what I had to say about Nader and Gore, in which he made the claim of being part of a real revolutionary movement that "kicks butt" as opposed to "liberals" who work for a Gore victory like myself.

The left doesn't have sexual scandals of the everyday sort, because all of the things that are considered transgressive and make for scandal in the larger sexual culture are looked at rather benignly in these precincts. The only cause for scandal here would be acts of sexual harassment. I am also not sure what this says about Nader and Gore, who are two of the most vanilla, asexual personalities I can imagine. It is hard for me to even imagine Nader as a sexual being, quite frankly, which is what makes the attempt to create some sexual scandal around him about as preposterous a political exercise as making Bush into an intellect.

Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20001103/518e0564/attachment.htm>



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