Walzer on the Left

[Chuck Munson]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> C. G. Estabrook quoted:
> 
> >CHOMSKY: It's not as bleak as I thought it was forty years ago. In fact,
> >what I've insisted over and over again, and I think is true, is that the
> >effect of the popular activism of the last forty years has been to make
> >the country a much more civilized place.
> 
> We're so used to thinking that we're powerless and that everything's
> getting worse, but I think NC's right here. I think you could add
> that race relations, relations between men and women, tolerance of
> sexual minorities, child-rearing practices, and lots of other aspects
> of daily life are better too.

I've been reading Chomsky's new book, "Understanding Power," and he goes
on at length about this. Of course, he has said the same thing for years
but it seems that the left doesn't listen. We seem to do a pretty good job
of disempowering ourselves through worries about COINTELPRO, government
surveillance, and other activist bugaboos, but forget that there are more
of us than ever before.

Just look at the success of Michael Moore's new book for example. Or the
fact that a Chomsky book is on the bestseller lists. That's just some
examples from the mainstream left. The more radical left is growing
rapidly and I'm hearing from activists and radicals in the most unlikely
places. You also wouldn't believe how many student radicals there are in
high school right now. Yes, most of them are isolated, but overall, the
numbers are encouraging.

The anti-capitalist and ant-globalization movements are also a good
indicator of how much things have changed. Seattle was just a fluke. It
had been building for years. And the ruling class had become so smug and
triumphant that they had dropped the ball on the basic things they needed
to do to fight back against the unwashed masses.

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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in
the world today are anarchists, who are busily
undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is
still trying to form committees." 

               -- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)