Lefty loosey righty tighty
Left politics- as well as students- lacking cohesion & gumption
Inga Korsgaard
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Observations
- Page 1 of 2 next >
There are few things that signal any parallel between the 2007 college student and those that roamed campuses in 1969 save a few Beatle's tee- shirts and other remnants of the mid 1990s hippie revival.
These backwash hippies listen to John Lennon's words in disconnect, revolution isn't on the average college student's mind in 2007, it is merely a catchy melody.
Despite global warming claims and this year's Indian summer, there is a striking similarity in climate in 2007 and 1969. Its wartime. Call it what they will. But considering the conditions, the student body in 2007 produced no hailstones. What happened to student power? Where is this nation's sympathetic, Anti- war left and why aren't they interested in making peace not war? Lennon facilitated the message memorably when half a million people sang "Give Peace a Chance" in an anti- war demonstration at the Washington Monument in the fall of 1969, but he wasn't solely responsible.
The late American political sociologist Barrington Moore Jr. said in 1967 referring to University students, "I wonder if the students actually realize how much influence they actually possess." This timeless quote resonates more powerfully forty years later.
A 2002 article from "Dissent Magazine" by Michael Waltzer analyzes the breakdown of leftist's politics in America specifically since the Vietnam era. The article titled, "Can There Be a Decent Left?" pinpoints the lack of leftist pull in politics to a general deterioration of cohesive identity, viable ideology and a general individual alienation. Waltzer says regarding ideology, "we certainly need something better than the rag- tag Marxism with which so much of the left operates today- whose chief effect is to turn world politics into a cheap melodrama, with all of the villains dressed to look the part and one villain larger than life."
Waltzer explains that as with any radical ideology radical personalities are required and these individuals have chosen to isolate themselves and spiraled out of the realm of reason in their isolation and radical gumption. The habit of blaming America for everything and worse, in an unattached manner, is the biggest culprit. This attitude guiltlessly allows the leftist avoid taking any responsibility for American politics.
These backwash hippies listen to John Lennon's words in disconnect, revolution isn't on the average college student's mind in 2007, it is merely a catchy melody.
Despite global warming claims and this year's Indian summer, there is a striking similarity in climate in 2007 and 1969. Its wartime. Call it what they will. But considering the conditions, the student body in 2007 produced no hailstones. What happened to student power? Where is this nation's sympathetic, Anti- war left and why aren't they interested in making peace not war? Lennon facilitated the message memorably when half a million people sang "Give Peace a Chance" in an anti- war demonstration at the Washington Monument in the fall of 1969, but he wasn't solely responsible.
The late American political sociologist Barrington Moore Jr. said in 1967 referring to University students, "I wonder if the students actually realize how much influence they actually possess." This timeless quote resonates more powerfully forty years later.
A 2002 article from "Dissent Magazine" by Michael Waltzer analyzes the breakdown of leftist's politics in America specifically since the Vietnam era. The article titled, "Can There Be a Decent Left?" pinpoints the lack of leftist pull in politics to a general deterioration of cohesive identity, viable ideology and a general individual alienation. Waltzer says regarding ideology, "we certainly need something better than the rag- tag Marxism with which so much of the left operates today- whose chief effect is to turn world politics into a cheap melodrama, with all of the villains dressed to look the part and one villain larger than life."
Waltzer explains that as with any radical ideology radical personalities are required and these individuals have chosen to isolate themselves and spiraled out of the realm of reason in their isolation and radical gumption. The habit of blaming America for everything and worse, in an unattached manner, is the biggest culprit. This attitude guiltlessly allows the leftist avoid taking any responsibility for American politics.
Be the first to comment on this story