Re: Speaking of volatility (Jones)

[timework@xxxxxxxxx (Tom Walker)]

I regret that Mark has piggy-backed blue-baiting of on top of my chiding. I share a number of Doug's cultural criticisms of "the left". I don't think that makes me a Republican. My issue with Doug is that he makes his dour observations and then "leaves it at that." The implication of the resulting void *could be* reactionary, but doesn't have to be so. Assuming that it *is* reactionary rather than merely incomplete is another way to limit the possibilities.

What strikes me is that Doug, Michael, Yoshie and Mark offered no response to my _programmatic_ reply to Doug. I could be utterly wrong, in which case I would welcome the criticism. But I don't think I'm vague or obtuse. Doug wrote (in a subsequent message) that the left "has no analytical vocabulary for talking about 'good' times." My position is that the left "has" the vocabulary but doesn't use it -- stubbornly refuses to use it, refuses to even see that it is refusing to use it. I talked about how one might talk about good times and Doug, Michael, Yoshie and Mark didn't respond. I talked about the capitalism fun stuff -- leftism hair shirt dialectic and why that is so. No reply. I hinted that maybe secretly leftists prefer the drama of struggling against insurmountable odds, which basically is where I share Doug's view. No answer.


Mark Jones wrote,

>Good stuff, however I fear a return right back to the womb may be >necessary in the case of some lapsed and possibly born-again Republicans.

Tom Walker
Bowen Island, BC
604 947 2213