Kristol on imagination

Joanna Sheldon cjs10 at cornell.edu
Thu Jan 18 17:02:22 PST 2001


At 08:18 19-01-01, you wrote:
>"American conservatism lacks for political imagination. It's so influenced
>by business culture and by business modes of thinking that it lacks any
>political imagination, which has always been, I have to say, a property of
>the left....If you read Marx, you'd learn what a political imagination
>could do."
>
>- Irving Kristol, quoted in a fascinating Lingua Franca article by Corey
>Robin on John Gray and Edward Luttwak, two rightwingers who've "moved
>left" in recent years
><http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0101/cover_cons.html>. Robin and
>Luttwak will be my radio guests in about 45 mins <http://www.wbai.org>.
>
>Doug

Good interview, Doug.

I find it strange that E. L. thinks he can get away with pretending to forget that, within the context of rampant capitalism, stringent environmental regulations in a country like the US will result in migration of jobs to less well-protected environments.

Joanna

PS: Speaking of rampant capitalism, the following revolting little ad in the Appointments section of The Times:

"This business is on the ascendant as new technology is put in place, quality customer service values kick in and the workforce becomes empowered. Hiring heavyweight communicators is an up-front priority. You should be capable of setting up an outstanding press office which is proactive and ahead of the field. Yours is a front-line role demanding an admixture of precision-thinking and a real nose for news. This is part of the community-involvement policy for a heavyweight communications professional."

-- In: The English language: a treat full of tricks The Independent, 18 January 2001

From a talk on Words into Meaning in the Modern World, given by Tim Connell, the Professor of Languages, at London's City University

www.overlookhouse.com



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