[lbo-talk] Cultural Change?

[Doug Henwood]

R wrote:

>the period of the 1960s and 70s was an embryonic period for today's far
>right.  barry goldwater looks almost liberal today.  during that period,
>militants, liberals, lefties, etc, were constantly being "warned" by the
>powers that be about "backlash."  reagan was a product of that backlash.
>and so is shrub.  we're living in that backlash.

"World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 contributed 
mightily to the advent of fascism. The war generated acute economic 
malaise, national humiliation and legions of restive veterans and 
unemployed youths who could be harnessed politically. The Bolshevik 
Revolution, but one symptom of the frustration with the old order, 
made conservative elites in Italy and Germany so fearful of Communism 
that anything -- even fascism -- came to seem preferable to a Marxist 
overthrow."
   - Samantha Power in yesterday's NYT Book Review

So let's not be successfully radical, since it'll just provoke a 
backlash. Better to mutter complaints from the sidelines.

Doug