[EDIT]comes off as comical at best and coldly cruel at worst. The thinking
needs to be clearer, and so does the language. It's my hope that, along with
a shift away from this language trough some have fallen into, there will
also be a shift away from old stances, old positions. If not, then a key
stream--the Left--in the wonderful tradition of American thought and action
will become irrelevant. And if that happens, we'll be all the poorer.
Robert Koehler
yeah right...i guess this is "in your humble opinion", since deeming just
what language is appropriate is more the job of a censor in line with
elitist scholarship in the tradition of Rousseau rather than the job of a
free citizenry which fosters a spirit of informed/experiential dialogue.
what is comical isn't the far left response to US imperialism but the
conservative pull for a rigorous dialect that literally squats in "free
speech" tradition (see the above plea for proper Left speech)...It seems,
Robert, that you really don't have the willingness to hang in with the
tradition of progressive american dialect as you claim...from calvinistic
radicalism to feirce naturalism to social anarchism; from the radical
changes in our language from emerson to whitman to stein and williams to
folks living today like levine...all wandering american spirits...but what
of every true left radical movement that has been squashed by calls for
tradition and commonground like yours (hearken to expats who claimed america
for themselves like pound)...Nixon did it to the Black Power Movement ("we
all want the same thing")...the communists did it to the student movement in
France (undesirablitiy)...the hippie capitalists did it to the radical
democracy movement as it blazed through the white bourgeoisie in America
(spectacle over substance)...liberalism, not left radicalism, is the scourge
here...liberalism in its desire to make changes within the already existing
framework...liberalism in its capacity to say "yes" rather than "no."--it's
fear of "changing tradition" as changing tradition relates to cultivating an
ever-new spirit, so to the Liberal fears new experience.
no voice empoverishes the Left...United (I, ONE) States (YOU, MANY)...Alfred
Whitehead: "the many are one and are increased by that one"...poetry or
physics?
The fact is that the order apparent in our country is not based upon
intellectual pursuit, playing with words and finding borders for tradition,
but in the labor of the people...this will out, not your call for
intellectual rigor. The left is not in danger...the Right, though, is fast
losing its grip on reality and now can only look to language for
support...power for the right has long been based on speech acts and
spectacle...the power of leftist struggles has always been in
action...that's what you fear...
loss of tradition...bah!...whose tradition???
the american tradition IS the personal is political...there is no rigor for
this spirit...
gary norris
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