>his often breathtaking nastiness
...which by the way is also sadly representative of a lot of Old Left culture. You see it in party newspapers, meetings, personal interactions. Younger activists, esp those influenced by anarchism, treat each other much better. I suspect it has something to do with the relations between temperament and political philosophy - old Bolshies don't care about courtesy, since they have a revolution to make; younger anarcho-activists pay a lot more attention to process. The old Bolshies think you can get to an egalitarian utopia by using militaristic and authoritarian means; younger non-Bolshies think that you should try to live your utopia in the present.
Doug