Kenneth Burke on Liberalism & the Burlesque

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

*****   The method of burlesque (polemic, caricature) is partial not 
only in the sense of _partisan_, but also in the sense of 
_incompleteness_....[T]he very basis of classic liberal apologetics, 
the over-emphasis upon freedom, was but a sober way of carrying out 
the burlesque genius.  It _stressed_ freedom, and sought to _smuggle_ 
in restrictions.  It cried for "rights," enjoying the strategic 
advantage of this invitation, without considering the corrective 
feature of ambivalence whereby "rights" also require their unpleasant 
reverse, "duties" or "obligations."

(Kenneth Burke, _Attitudes toward History_ 3rd ed., Berkeley: U of 
California P, 1984, p. 55)   *****

Yoshie