>Self-criticism within an existing and coherent left, at least roughly
>unified around both goals and strategy, is of course essential.
>So-called "criticism" of THE LEFT (which doesn't exist) is not
>self-criticism but selfconscious withdrawal in amused superiority to all
>those folk struggling in adverse circumstances to create a left in which
>self-criticism would be possible. It is either whining that others do
>not recogize the superior wisdom and moral character of the "Critic" or
>a gesture similar to the drawing in of the skirts of the stereotypical
>Victorian Woman at the presence of a streetwalker. An ideological purity
>grounded in the conscious moral rectitude of the "Critic."
Do you ever re-read your stuff a few days later and burst out laughing?
Doug