i'm not in the entertainment business so i don't worry about taking a look at society's shit side when i write. there are enough pessimistic, depressed, fearful people in our society that the left would have great appeal if it got its message out. trouble is, people don't look left for answers. the left in the USA is moribund not from negativity but from exclusion and disorganization. and decades of being the scapegoat in the cold war.
what victories? the victories are in the past. what's needed is a clear, unabashed appraisal of what "liberals" and the left are up against. then organizing to deal with it.
meanwhile, no one can afford to turn their backs on resurgent jim crow, for example, for any reason, despite the fact it's not "pleasant" or easy to look at.
i don't know if i'm making my points clear since we've never met. but i hope i am.
R
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 2:57 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Purging Black Votes: 2000 and 2004
R wrote:
>society may have improve in some ways during the 1960s, but much is rolled
>back and replaced by privatization, nonsense about "reverse
discrimination,"
>deregulation, the "war" on drugs, the "war" on terror, et al. and jim crow
>once again rolls along.
This is one reason the left has so little broad appeal - there are deep reservoirs of pessimism, decline, depression, and fear in our discourse. We're literally hopeless, and can't even enjoy our victories. Cheer the fuck up.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk