> << One of the more dispiriting spectacles to which we are subjected in this
> curiously weightless-seeming commencement de siècle is that of the apostate
> left-wing radical taking revenge on his former self or selves. >>
>
> << Everywhere about us we see young wrinklies in their 50s who a mere few
> decades ago were burning flags and burning bras but who now burn nothing
> more than the occasional Montecristo in celebration of the latest sewn-up
> software deal or stitched-up soft-hearted rival... >>
>
> << Christopher Hitchens, known to his friends as The Hitch, and, come to
> think of it, probably to his enemies also, has kept the socialist faith
> with conviction, energy and high style. He is, as he tells us, "mainly
> English", the son of a navy family based in Portsmouth, but he has lived
> for a long time now in America, where he is, unlikely as it may sound,
> Professor of Liberal Studies in the Graduate School at the New School, New
> York. >>
>
Apostate left-wing radicals is a long story. Truth be told, great numbers of what are serious, weighty right-wing intellectuals started their careers as left-wing radicals. It is almost as if you can't think original thoughts on the right, so you have to bring them from the left. The New Left generation follows in a well-established pattern: the Trots of the 50s turned neo-conservatives; the socialist, Partisan Review type intellectuals of the 30s turned conservative; and so on. Only the hard core Stalinists even been spared this ignominy, since the CP and the various Maoist groups couldn't produce an intellectual to begin with. Genovese is about as close to a Stalinist turned conservative intellectual one can find.
But about Christopher Hitchens... Well, I know George Orwell, I have studied George Orwell, I have even quoted him on occasion, and Hitchens, you are no George Orwell.
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 lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
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