[lbo-talk] Fantasies of Left Liberalism

[Michael Dawson]

That isn't what Diamond says at all!  What he does is explain that the
reason social scientists talk about trouble so often is the same reason
doctors talk mostly about disease, rather than wellness:  We want to
understand the problem areas better, so we can intervene to fix or improve
the causes.  We aren't trouble-addicts; we're optimists.  The same argument
should be repeated by leftists.  We complain because we are trying to find
ways to do better, not because we're gloom addicts.  (Although some of us
clearly are the latter...)

This is the opposite of a call for quietness.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of andie nachgeborenen
> Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 1:25 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Fantasies of Left Liberalism
> 
> If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at
> all?
> 
> Diamond's sensible-sounding advice these days sounds
> like a recipe for silence. Brecht has a different
> point of view:
> 
> In the dark times, will there also be singing?
> Yes, there will be singing, about the dark times.
> 
> I think it is a myth that we are weak because we
> kvetch. The right does _nothing but_ kvetch. Listen to
> an hour of whatisname, the fat drug addict, Rush
> Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter. You think
> they are bubbling fountains of optimism? You think
> that if we managed to be Morning In America-ish all
> the time it would help us despite our lack of
> organization and resources? I don't believe it.
> 
> jks
> 
> --- Michael Dawson <MDawson at pdx.edu> wrote:
> 
> > Leftists could take a lesson from Jared Diamond, who
> > is careful to explain
> > that the only reason to talk about problems is hope
> > for bettering
> > intervention.
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org
> > [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> > > On Behalf Of Jon Johanning
> > > Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 5:56 AM
> > > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > > Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Fantasies of Left
> > Liberalism
> > >
> > > I suspect that the image of the "gloomy leftist"
> > is not due so much to
> > > experiences with actual depressive and/or
> > depressing individuals as it
> > > is to the fact that so much Left writing seems to
> > be an unrelieved list
> > > of disasters past, present or predicted. The
> > people writing this
> > > material may be perfectly cheerful in person, but
> > what emerges from
> > > their keyboards, pens, pencils or whatever is
> > quite the opposite.
> > >
> > >
> > > Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
> > > __________________________
> > > In my religion there would be no exclusive
> > doctrine; all would be love,
> > > poetry and doubt. -- Cyril Connoll (The Unquiet
> > Grave)
> > >
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> 
> 
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