On Oct 20, 2006, at 3:34 PM, Michael Pollak wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Oct 2006, Doug Henwood quoted:
>
>> "...the quixotic fantasy of activists who craved acceptance from
>> the same society they wanted to revolutionize."
>
> I'm a little baffled by your approbation for that sentence.
>
> If democratic change is possible, then by definition, society is
> going to have to accept our ideas.
The context for this is Kazin's point that most American radicals - all the permutations of the populist strain, including the CP in its popular front phase - have done so as "patriots," accusing elites of corruption and betrayal of the constitution and American ideals. It's all a closed circle: we need to get back to some "true Americanism" which the vile usurpers have sullied. So no critique of American society as needing a serious overhaul is possible, because that would be "unpatriotic."
Doug