[lit-ideas] Re: Leftism and Islamism
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 05:26:04 -0500
LH:
Here is an interesting open-forum discussion of the association of Leftism
and Islamism:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=7901&sid=597521fe56ef9e9af8aac07f74335784<<
"Interesting"?? About as interesting as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. The
posts are amusing, I'll grant you that. They're fun to laugh at.
I wanted you to name some Lit-Idea leftists because I don't know what you
mean by the term and I'm not sure you do either. Anyone who disagrees with
you is a leftist is about all that I can gather, and you might be right.
Let me define liberal and leftist as I use the terms. A liberal is a warm
and fuzzy word in my lexicon. It refers to the good people, that is, those
who believe first and foremost that all human beings are equal in their
claims to dignity and worth and have equal standing before the law. Given
those beliefs it can usually be anticipated that a liberal will support
human rights, civil rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religion,
freedom of conscience and freedom of person. Given those beliefs it can
usually be anticipated that a liberal will oppose economic, military and
cultural oppression of any people. Given those beliefs it can usually be
anticipated that a liberal will view society as an incredibly complex
network of mutual dependencies and will support and work towards enacting
those legislative prohibitions and regulations that further the interests of
the greatest number at the least cost to individual freedoms. A liberal
acknowledges that she is always caught in a tension between what she owes to
the society that created and nourishes her and her need to explore and
express her self as a creative being in the world. That's liberalism -- at
least in theory, but every theory must build it's own road to walk down and
that's where leftists come in.
A leftist is a politically active liberal -- a road bulder. The range of
activism among leftists is as great that as on the right, and leftists can
actually become rightwingers when they let their ambitions take over their
ideals and they adopt fascist tactics. This has happened in the past and as
a result 'leftist' is not so warm a word as 'liberal'. 'Ist' words never
are, but it's much, much warmer than 'fascist' -- which I conflate with the
right. In fact, I use 'greed-driven, militaristic, theocratic-fascists' as
short-hand for the Bush Administration -- and just about anybody else I see
as a danger to humanity --just as you use hyphenated forms of 'leftist'.
Short-hand is fun. I find your use of "Islamo-leftist" very comical. It's
totally oxymoronic. But that's the fun. It's OK if a label is
meaningless. The use of labels is a quick and easy way to spit on something
as you mention it. I find it stress relieving. Unfortunately, I don't ever
take the word 'leftist' or 'liberal' as a terms of contempt, so I never feel
the sting of your insult. Quite the opposite I just feel warm and smug
inside reading the words 'leftist' and 'liberal'.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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