[lit-ideas] Re: "Leftist" vs. "Counterculturalist"
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 12:28:43 -0700
I can't do that, Eric. I read a lot of stuff that refers to the Left the
same way I use it. Shall I, for example, refer to Horowitz book Unholy
Alliance, Radical Islam and the American Left and translate for the
Lit-Ideas quibblers, "the American counter culture"? I don't think so.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Eric Yost
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 12:00 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] "Leftist" vs. "Counterculturalist"
Lawrence: Why is Leftism siding with Islamism? That is an
interesting question and I have heard several theories about
it. My own favorite is that the Leftists learned to hate
America during the Cold war when they supported Soviet
Russia and the Communists.
Maybe Carol, Mike, and Simon have a good point about
"leftism." The term is amorphous and doesn't describe the
reality of the sentiment, which is probably at heart not a
strict ideology though it is a politics.
Let me suggest "counterculturalist" instead of "leftist."
Older members of my generation were weaned on Watergate and
Nixon's resignation. At that time, the government WAS
considered the enemy. To be cool, you had to be
countercultural.
A lot of people are stuck back in that time. They haven't
grown as people beyond those days. Watching Ward Churchill
speak, I couldn't help smiling at my perception of the inner
Ward Churchill as subtext--the guy who wishes he were still
back at Columbia University occupying the administration
building, the hippie who couldn't make his eco-sustainable,
freelove commune work, the guy who just wants to recapture
and maintain the passion of youth, the guy who still
believes he can find love through his counterculturalism.
We think by feeling, as Roethke wrote. We move toward things
we consider cool first. Then we dream up reasons why they
are true.
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