> My take on the exchange wasn't that lbo90210's was claiming some sort
> of escape from alienation. It seemed more to me like Denise was
> claiming that someones lived experience didn't matter unless it was
> explained so that he, Denise, understood it.
>
Did you really just write Denise?
>
> I have often thought that part of the reason that the left has had
> such a hard time succeeding is because most of us and our leaders
> aren't the types of people with rich lived histories. Not that
> reading books are bad, but reading a book about a lived experience is
> not the same as living it. The right has lots more people with very
> thick characters based on lived experience. The left seems to devalue
> such things and aggrandise those with little actual experience and
> much book learning. I mean our main hero sat on his ass for thirty
> years in a library.
>
I have no idea what planet you live on. Who do you see on the right with rich lived experience? Palin? Buchanan? Bush? Cheney? Reagan? Do you even know Marv? read the last post from Shag? What do you mean by rich lived experience? Ever talked with ex-Panthers? ex-SDSers? Freedom Riders? Union organizers? Are you writing about iconic individuals or lay leftists? What makes you equate leftists and academics? Most of the latter are not among the former, though many among the former are more intellectually, personally and experientially interesting than just about all of the latter.