Another Bit of Berman:
This Insta-linked article from Salon's Cary Tennis, offering advice on The Revolution to an academic who longs for the fulfilling days of '68 and the barricades and Foucault and the Maos and the Red Brigades and Chicago and Entebbe and so forth, reminded me of this quote from Paul Berman's recent review-essay on French anti-anti-Americanism:
Modern political life is a landscape befogged with mists and clouds of halfway held fugitive opinions--the kind of landscape that allows an intelligent and well-educated person to say with perfect sincerity, "George W. Bush is a fascist and the United States is on the brink of becoming Nazi Germany," and yet allow that same earnest person cheerfully to acknowledge, in the next breath, that, come January 2009, Bush and his entire fascist crew of Zionist conspirators are absolutely guaranteed to vacate the White House in favor of a new and popularly elected team, who might well be Bush's fiercest opponents.OK, so the guy didn't actually mention Entebbe - that's an, er, extrapolation. Tennis's advice, essentially: the time to waste some pigs is not yet upon us. Till it comes, you can do your part by teaching Foucault, laying the groundwork for an imminent American Tiananmen Square.
(The TNR link is, I believe, subscription only, unfortunately.)
Posted by Dr. Frank at December 12, 2005 05:12 PM | TrackBackDamn, Frank. You are a postin' fool.
The ultimate irony would be if the left are succesful on outlawing fire-arms and are left to fight the revolution with sticks, rocks, and a handful of gumption. I wonder what would have happened had Stalin faced a sit-in.
Posted by: josh at December 12, 2005 08:32 PM"(The TNR link is, I believe, subscription only, unfortunately.)"
Bugmenot.com
As you know, I hold Berman in nearly as high a regard, although I had slightly more mixed feelings about his France essay, and, of course, there's no one who writes without flaws.
Posted by: Gary Farber at December 13, 2005 12:55 AM**The ultimate irony would be if the left are succesful on outlawing fire-arms and are left to fight the revolution with sticks, rocks, and a handful of gumption.**
Because a few thousand people with .45s and hunting rifles would surely be a match to America's armed forces-sarcastically.
I don't think all guns should be outlawed, but "protecting ourselves from the government" is the worst possible excuse for keeping them legal.
A much better one would be "shooting deer is fun".
I disagree Tim. It's the only reason I find completely convincing and was the reasoning of the founding fathers. It increases the cost of oppression significantly.
I don't mind the shooting deer is fun argument either.
Posted by: josh at December 16, 2005 01:44 AM