I agree that bit right there is the most dubious of what I'm throwing out- I'd be more interested in what you think of the general thrust of that argument (that people should go where and do what leftists don't do much of yet).  And I don't mean to fall into NY-bashing (anti-intellectualisms' kissing-cousin).  But would you disagree that NYC is the world capital of leftists talking to other leftists?  Of course it has the largest multinational working class in the United States, and politics there is reduced to kleptocratic political and union machines battling plutocratic robber barons (I'm borrowing this phrase from Fitch--- I loved his work before this last book).  Surely the city ought to be a hotbed of the liberal-left like SF or even LA is now.  If it isn't, I don't know why.  But I do know that most of the leftists I know who move there do not do so to engage in mass organizing, or wind up a normal person embedded in their community.  Between the colleges, the art scene, the hipster parties, the sect headquarters and the debating circles like ours (not to mention covering the high rent!), NYC does seem to have less of a mass left these days than say LA or Chicago.  Maybe I should have said, "don't move to Brooklyn."  Eh? But really I'm less interested in debating NYC itself than the proposition that leftists should stop flocking to, clustering with, and talking to other leftists.  Would you dispute the point if I struck NYC from the list and left it at SF Bay Area and the liberal college towns?  Anyone want to take up the cause of sparking revolution from Madison or Charlottesvile?  back when I lived in Ohio, sometimes when we'd be out housevisiting hospital workers who worked at a place in springfield, we'd have one or two of them who lived closer to the college lefty town of Yellow Springs, where antioch is.  When we'd drive through yellow springs and see the 'infoshop' and noon peace demos with three old hippies, we'd shake our heads and be glad we were talking to workers all day instead of talking about them in a labor studies class or whatever.  But as we drove away from yellow springs, I'd look back longingly, pining for the tasty tofu sandwhiches, good coffee, and microbrews available in that town.  Dinner in Springfield was a glum choice between long john silvers and arby's.  The temptations to flee honkie america are strong. <div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> > > -Don't move to NYC Yeah, no working class there! What kind of nonsense is this? This city is profoundly divided by class and race, with a vast low-wage workforce, oodles of "non- participants," and some awful unions. If ever anyplace needed better organization, it's here. Doug </blockquote></div>