[lbo-talk] Kansas as angst indicator

[Carl Remick]

>From: Jon Johanning <jjohanning at igc.org>
>
>On Jun 22, 2004, at 6:25 PM, Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>But I must say I still don't understand why Kansas and Americans at large 
>>are as hopelessly deluded as they are, so willing to focus their fury on 
>>trumped up social issues instead of real material concerns.
>
>Could part of the answer be that, these days, radicals are not giving 
>Americans any clear ideas about how to advance their "real material 
>concerns" outside the capitalist system?

I think this is rooted in Karl Marx's well-known refusal to write "cookbooks 
of the future," a weirdly blinkered view of the human prospect that, e.g., 
Carrol Cox occasionally endorses here on the list.  Thomas Frank says 
Kansans are "plen-T-plaint" people who stew in indignation without any 
ability whatsoever to imagine a differently ordered society.  I'd say what 
the US needs now is another Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward) who can 
capture the popular imagination and get people speculating again about the 
possibility of a socialist future.

Carl

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