PKs

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

And we're not talking post-Keyensians...

Unlike Max Sawicky, I'm unwilling to overlook the sexism & homophobia of
the Promise Keepers, but I agree with a good bit of what he said. The
standard left-liberal impulse to call the PKs fascists - and to litigate to
prevent them from meeting, as The Nation's Democracy Institute has done -
is wrong. And what how do you understand a movement that seems to
substitute emotional display for traditionally hard, cold masculinity, and
anti-racism for its traditional opposite? The rise of movements like these
is in part a result of the decline of the left and of unions; much of the
PK appeal comes from an attempt to overcome the alienation, atomization,
and cruelty of contemporary American life. James Dobson, of Focus on the
Family, is an unmitigated horror, as are most of the other "pro-family"
leaders, but it does no good to declare war with the kinds of men who were
on the Washington Mall on Saturday. You can't profess democratic values and
then run from the masses in shock & horror. People seem desperate for some
kind of communal, nonalienated experience - isn't there something remotely
positive in that?

Doug