I am jealous to hear of the coming grandbaby. I know jealousy is not honorable, but honesty is. I am enthralled to learn more of what you have to say about Marx, Engels, Bernstein, and Kaitlyn. Keep going!
> In my flaming youth, I aspired to a revolutionary transformation
> taking up a sack of bankrupt ideological nostrums to that end.
Most who were imbued with and confined to the standard leftist paradigm just didn’t recognize the ideological turning point that was initiated in the wake of the post-Sixties rethinkings regarding human history and social change theory.
Coming out of the Sixties activists like us were searching. We could see that capitalism was ruinous and Stalinist socialism was unsatisfactory. Possible “third ways” to consider were (among others) Trotskyism, Luxemburgism, Harringtonism, [Emma] Goldmanism.
It was intelligent to be social change activists and to be seeking better theory and praxis. Our seeking is nothing to be apologetic about.
What some of us found turned out to be very alternative, indeed. It was well explicated in a variety of seminal texts published during the 1990s:
A fellow New Jerseyan! I wonder if you knew any of my HS classmates, Weequahic 1964, over 40 went to Rutgers. I was a bit young, just turned 17 when I went to Columbia, read Evolutionary Socialism and the rest of the CC curriculum, had a roommate who went on to the Weatherman and much later repudiated their tactics and strategy while continuing to speak up in numerous forums for the aims of the evolutionary left.
For me, NYC was about smoking a lot of weed, and not paying much attention to class. Happy as the thought of losing my scholarship, I didn't wait and quit after my sophomore year. These days, I occasionally am bitten by "I coulda been a contender" syndrome, but remain active enough in a number of unrelated venues, including political activism of a sort, not to be seriously bedeviled by regret. And helped by the security of a 51-year marriage.
Enough about me! I have been reading you for years, and with great admiration for your acumen, wisdom, and stylish prose style. I hope never again to see you replaced by Miracle Max, even temporarily!
I assume you are speaking about the filmmaker. My best friend in elementary school, reconnected with him through a very brief correspondence a couple of years ago.
A documentary filmmaker. His company was Great Projects. Won an Emmy for a film about George Marshall, but my favorite was one about the Jewish anti-Nazi resistance guerrillas.
Always look forward to reading your observations and congrats on the grandbaby. Nothing compares. 🙏🏼❣️
I am jealous to hear of the coming grandbaby. I know jealousy is not honorable, but honesty is. I am enthralled to learn more of what you have to say about Marx, Engels, Bernstein, and Kaitlyn. Keep going!
Grr. Autocorrect! Kautsky.
Stations of a double cross
Main frame
Social denocracy 1875 to 1920
Yes, very curious about the communists versus the socialists in the 19th century
> In my flaming youth, I aspired to a revolutionary transformation
> taking up a sack of bankrupt ideological nostrums to that end.
Most who were imbued with and confined to the standard leftist paradigm just didn’t recognize the ideological turning point that was initiated in the wake of the post-Sixties rethinkings regarding human history and social change theory.
Coming out of the Sixties activists like us were searching. We could see that capitalism was ruinous and Stalinist socialism was unsatisfactory. Possible “third ways” to consider were (among others) Trotskyism, Luxemburgism, Harringtonism, [Emma] Goldmanism.
It was intelligent to be social change activists and to be seeking better theory and praxis. Our seeking is nothing to be apologetic about.
What some of us found turned out to be very alternative, indeed. It was well explicated in a variety of seminal texts published during the 1990s:
https://www.amazon.com/Green-Political-Thought-Andrew-Dobson/dp/0044452454
https://archive.org/details/seeinggreenpolit00porr
. . . and then it spawned the sub-movement called “ecosocialism”:
https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~franker/FrankeWhatIsEcosocialism.pdf
A fellow New Jerseyan! I wonder if you knew any of my HS classmates, Weequahic 1964, over 40 went to Rutgers. I was a bit young, just turned 17 when I went to Columbia, read Evolutionary Socialism and the rest of the CC curriculum, had a roommate who went on to the Weatherman and much later repudiated their tactics and strategy while continuing to speak up in numerous forums for the aims of the evolutionary left.
For me, NYC was about smoking a lot of weed, and not paying much attention to class. Happy as the thought of losing my scholarship, I didn't wait and quit after my sophomore year. These days, I occasionally am bitten by "I coulda been a contender" syndrome, but remain active enough in a number of unrelated venues, including political activism of a sort, not to be seriously bedeviled by regret. And helped by the security of a 51-year marriage.
Enough about me! I have been reading you for years, and with great admiration for your acumen, wisdom, and stylish prose style. I hope never again to see you replaced by Miracle Max, even temporarily!
Thanks. Closest thing to a Weequahic connect is my ancient friend Ken Mandel.
I assume you are speaking about the filmmaker. My best friend in elementary school, reconnected with him through a very brief correspondence a couple of years ago.
A documentary filmmaker. His company was Great Projects. Won an Emmy for a film about George Marshall, but my favorite was one about the Jewish anti-Nazi resistance guerrillas.