wasn't hostile. didn't have a clue as to what you were talking about. I especially didn't get the "Yeesh!" part of it
> Maybe I didn't make myself clear, or maybe you read my post too fast.
> The "hoary abstractions" I was talking about weren't yours or Bhaskar's.
> Nothing in the post was aimed at you.
out of curiosity, whose hoary abstraction are they? why talk about or at others when you are writing to two people who aren't those others?
>On the contrary, I was saying the argument you and Bhaskar articulated
>(about personal resp, hard work, etc.) is exactly the kind of argument the
>left *ought* to have. As *opposed* to such "hoary abstractions" as "is
>capital a totality?" (a meaningless example I pulled out of the air). I
>was saying the left needs to work out "words and theories" on subjects
>like personal responsibility, work, self-improvement, etc., and that the
>observations and arguments you and Bhaskar were making lead in exactly
>this direction.
>
>Maybe I should have spelled it out. The phrase "personal responsibility,
>hard work, and self improvement" came from a pro-Tea Party editorial.
yeah, Ruthless Critic sent it to me, too, and I read it then. I was all like, "fuckme, I thought I was special. But Ruthless is sending stuff to SA too? Probably sending to everyone. Dang. Just one among dozens. :("
ha, kidding!
> It's standard right-wing rhetoric. It resonates with many people. When
> right-wingers use this rhetoric, they have in mind a particular
> conception of "personal responsibility, hard work, and self improvement"
> that we don't share.
> (That's what I meant when I wrote, with deliberately provocative irony,
> that "we disagree" with "hard work and personal responsibility.") But by
> default they have succeeded in making those values "right-wing" in US
> political discourse. This is, I argue, because the left has no
> rhetoric/argument/theory on this question, or at least none as familiar
> and instantly recognizable as the Right's.
>The result, just as you said, is that many people associate such wholesome
>values with right-wing politics and the right scores yet another
>ideological, or hegemonic, victory. I was trying to suggest that maybe we
>could think about how to change that.
actually, what I was saying is that probably what distinguishes a leftist from a progressive is that a leftist usually looks at it the way Bhaskar did. A progressive, on the other hand, is baited - precisely because she doesn't see herself as a leftist and feels obliged to renounce leftism when baited. Thus, a progressive has no answer because a progressive actually believes that leftists are opposed to hard work, responsibility, etc.
shag