<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=3><< I can't fathom why you and Justin persist in kowtowing to the non-existent
<BR>intellectual splendor of these grubby opportunists. >>
<BR>
<BR>Speaking solely for myself, I find it valuable to look for serious contrary
<BR>views -- the strongest argument in opposition to where I stand -- on which I
<BR>can hone my own argument. If all I ever converse with is people who agree
<BR>with me, what I am going to learn? People who have been through the left
<BR>generally know the arguments I want to make.
<BR>
<BR>And once you know the history of American radicalism, it is amazing how many
<BR>leading American social thinkers, from the Seymour Martin Lipsets and the
<BR>Daniel Bells to the Will Herbergs and Hannah Arendts, came out of the left.
<BR>Once doesn't even have to descend into the dregs of neo-conservatism, with
<BR>the Irving Kristols and Getrude Himmelfarb, to make this case; I would not
<BR>want to have to argue that Kristol is very smart. But the best thinkers come
<BR>out of the left. Even Justin's Judge Posner comes out of a red diaper family.
<BR>
<BR>And there is an idea connection, as well. You look at something like the
<BR>theory of 'managerial revolution' popularized by James Burnham in his right
<BR>wing, post-Trot phase, for example, and what do you find but a popularized
<BR>version of the 'bureaucratic collectivism' thesis he developed with Max
<BR>Shactman.
<BR>
<BR>Speaking of all this, I was happy to see Jeffry Issac's essay on Tony Giddens
<BR>in the latest issue of _Dissent_, because he actually takes grapples with
<BR>Gidden's 'third way' arguments, as opposed to just dismissing him for being
<BR>an apostate. The only authors I have read that do this are Issacs and Chantal
<BR>Mouffe. I recommend them both.
<BR>
<BR>Leo Casey
<BR>United Federation of Teachers
<BR>260 Park Avenue South
<BR>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
<BR>
<BR>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
<BR>It never has, and it never will.
<BR>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
<BR>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
<BR>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
<BR>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
<BR><P ALIGN=CENTER>-- Frederick Douglass --
<BR>
<BR>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
<BR></P></FONT></HTML>