Its about harboured conservative
> instincts rarely
> acknowledged nor considered except in deoxigenated
> debate within moral
> philosophy.
Spot on! How do you think this self-censure (certainly much greater than any imposed censure in the West) crept into the Left, or has it always been there? There certainly seems to be a moment in the 60s - in America and W. Europe- that this was not the case. Maybe I am mistaken about that though, since I was so young then.
It's very funny how sooner or later this harboured conservatism comes out. A lot of these leftists will beat on their chest about how anti-racist they are, and they will particularly choose to make fun of Southerners as racist in this country. However, put a few of these white leftists in a room with minorities, especially, in this country, african-americans and you will get the biggest carnival show of your life. On the one hand you will get the white leftist who stutters and finally manages to get out something like "we are all one", or you get the smooth-talker who can immediately suck-up.
Or you get the white leftist who seeks "REDEMPTION". Their plan for getting redemption is normally to date or have some kind of romantic relationship with a person of color NOT because of any physical/emotional/intellectual attraction but because of their need to prove to themselves and OTHERS how unracist they are. I knew a girl who did this and came to cry on my shoulder when the guy took her for a ride. She was shocked when I told her, "You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas". She was shocked because she interpreted it as not politically correct. What she didn't understand is that I thought SHE was the dog and the guy who had laid down with her had gotten the fleas!
In any case, these are a couple of examples of how a very distorted conservatism comes out. Since admitting one is racist or has some racist tendancies and dealing with it would not be tolerated in a lot of well-heeled leftist circles, you just shut and let it fester. Of course, the same thing happens with sexuality...you sign a petition against gay bashing, masturbate once and voila, you are pro-sex! The map is not the territory and words often hide the truth of the matter.
>Its about a sensibility of decency and
> dignity and of moral
> censure - part of the slip into thinking about
> values rather than interests,
> desires and needs.
Is this the influence of Christianity? Is this part of the dialectic of just reacting to capital rather than positively pursuing desires and needs?
Ultimately the sex thing just
> reflects that most left
> politics have come down to expressions of a
> fundamental desire for
> stability, an inner longing for the state
Have you ever seen the movie "Ice Storm"? You should.
-Thomas
> > Subject: Re: sex and the left
>
> Its not so much about sex in itself, its about the
> defensive regulative
> mindset of people on the 'left'. Its about an ageing
> of the left, its
> re-emergence in the shape of people who have grown
> bitter and cynical.
> People who become absorbed with their children and
> by having
> _real_responsibilities, and doing _real_ jobs. Its
> about the self importance
> that goes along with being public, as well as the
> fear of doing and speaking
> inappropriately. Its about harboured conservative
> instincts rarely
> acknowledged nor considered except in deoxigenated
> debate within moral
> philosophy. Its about a sensibility of decency and
> dignity and of moral
> censure - part of the slip into thinking about
> values rather than interests,
> desires and needs. Ultimately the sex thing just
> reflects that most left
> politics have come down to expressions of a
> fundamental desire for
> stability, an inner longing for the state. Its
> theoretical discourse has
> become almost completely a form of political
> liberalism and the shift has
> barely been noticed. It is a puritanism and it sees
> power only as order, it
> hates the other kind - power to - and secretly knows
> its own pretences to
> enact it are farcical. Its not so much that the much
> of the left is
> anti-sex, much more deeply they are just anti.
>
>
>
>
>
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