RR – knowledge = poison? – Abuse ain’t Argument…

Fred- Easy to see why folks who bought into, say, the wonders of the Soviet U. or the Cultural Revolution or the Sandinistas or…might be shamed into heading way right – But you know there have alwasy been leftists (and more liberals) who were anti-totalitarians. Think on (the greatest of em all?) Orwell. And there are other writers on left who are more modern, more clear than Orwell ever was about what might offered up INSTEAD of statism/socialism to people aware that Western (& Christian!) values don’t match up with wbat’s on offer from Ayn Rand or Bill Buckley or minds ruled by the Market.

I mentioned Lawrence Goodwyn’s stuff here – Alexis checked it out and found his books are not worthless – I think someother clubbers might have got the groove there too. Goodwyn is a radical democrat. At the end of the Populist Moment – (hsi abridged version of his standard history of American populism) he provides a chapter on “economics” that challenges preconceptons on both the left and right. Read that myself matters of “provision’ ever since…A couple other writers might interest you as well – Might look into Castoriadis and Mauss…Interesting European heads…Key is to keep looking out for genuinely new ideas that are in great Tradition(s). (Castoriadis, for example, is the great updater of Greek demos – Mauss is a hero of Social Anthropology) – Though as Bob Dylan once said in a song that came out right after 9/11 – “You can’t open your mind to every conceivable point of view.”