Lenin today

[Bradford DeLong]

>Bradford DeLong wrote:
>
>>What I don't understand is their longevity: Why does Howard Kurtz 
>>quote Andrew Sullivan? Why didn't Dan Quayle fire William Kristol 
>>in March of 1989? These are things I genuinely do not understand...
>
>Because mainstream liberals really do feel paralyzed by guilt, and 
>harbor the secret conviction that the right really is right, and 
>they are mushy and weak? Because the American mainstream still needs 
>the myth of a subversive and dangerous left, as absurd as that is, 
>to maintain social discipline, and the right is an indispensable 
>ally in that battle?
>
>Doug

You are *supposed* to construct *structural* answers based on 
analyses of real, concrete social practices and patterns. You are 
*not* supposed to reify the scattered and diverse opinions of 
thousands into a single collective consciousness to which you 
attribute agency, and then explain concrete historical and political 
episodes by its goal-directed actions.

Bad Doug! Bad Doug! Bad!


:-)

Brad DeLong