The only real problem that I have had with Robin's book is that Ted Honderich, years ago in his book, Conservatism,, covered much the same ground as Corey does, albeit at a more conceptual or philosophical level than Robin. Yet, Robin makes no mention at all of Honderich.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant http://www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math
---------- Original Message ---------- From: shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org, <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Corey Robin's Reactionary Mind argument in miniature Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:39:32 -0500
At 09:33 PM 3/7/2012, Carrol Cox wrote:
>I've listened to ZoomText read the post twice. I think I grasp what it says.
>
>But why should any leftist be concerned with arguing against libertarians.
>It's a waste of time.
i guess i don't have a problem with that. professors are motivated by all sorts of things, none of which are necessarily supposed to be topics that leftists care about.
what i don't understand is, according to that blog post, why should leftists care? ho hum, Sanchez is a hypocrit who cares about certain kinds of freedom for some, not for all.
corety assumes an audience who believes in a certain ideological explanation that I don't think most leftists buy: that libertarians are about maximizing freedom/ leftists are about maximizing equality. and yet, he takes up the counterargument to that - well, he doesn't really take it up; rather he waves at it - when he mentions positive v negative liberty. one assumes he's talking about the argument advanced by Crooked Timber of Humanity dude, can't think of his name... Isaiah Berlin.
Robin has been a journalist for most of his adult life. According to his CV, he spent a good deal of his life writing journalism in addition to getting an education.
I see him as someone who wants to be a public intellectual, which makes a lot of sense. A number of people we now consider public intellectuals - the ones who inspire today's emulators - were also journalists during their career.
I think that he wants to direct his writing to a broader audience than merely other professors, much as Doug wants to write LBO pieces that can be used in the classroom as well as read by general, educated audience.
>Now we could use, not an argument (which is always futile) but a good
>question to ask leftists who too easily drift into "coalition" work with
>libertarians. It's harmless, but it is a fucking waste of their time and the
>time of other leftists who have to dane around it.
>
>Doug says Robin is a professor: does he aim his work at the utility of other
>professors teaching seminars. I certainly (even if I had eyes) would not
>choose to read a book by someone who wastes his time arguing with
>libertarians.
>
>Carrol
>
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