I am both intrigued, enough to want to learn more, and also a little confused. Sometime last year I took some survey on the ‘net which tells you if you are left- or right-leaning. I came out a Centrist. To tell you the truth, I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I’m so tired of labels! I have often wished for not only a viable third party in this country, but also a fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on. Why must we align ourselves with a party in teh first place — can’t we judge a political candidate on their own merits? Aaah, I digress…

I’m afraid that everything you wrote about on this page and in your book will be discussed and argued in college campuses, coffee shops, and maybe in newspapers or on television, but only by the most educated in our society. I am 47 years old, a life-long Democrat from a blue-collar family, and I have never heard of Christopher Hitchens, Michael Ignatieff and Paul Berman. I have absolutely no idea who they are. There is too much to learn! I’m what they call pink-collar now, and I feel clueless.

I am attending a community college now and was really surprised to discover that, even in a pretty liberal and diverse urban setting, there is little (if any) political activism on campus. The only thing the students seem to be upset about is receiving book vouchers as part of their financial aid, instead of money that they can spend any way they like. Isn’t it usually the case that blue-collar, low- and middle-income folk who can’t afford to buy the NY Times every day just don’t involve themselves in these sorts of analyses or enlightenment? That they’re really only worrying about their next paycheck and not getting sick because they have no insurance? Strangely, many have also become conservatives. Attitudes have changed since the credit card companies started giving plastic to poor people, and now even the poorest must wear designer labels or, at the very least, knock-offs. Must have something to show for all of your debt. Uh-oh, I digress again.

I am glad you wrote this book and are attempting to make people more aware of what’s going on in the world. However, it saddens me that only a small group of very smart people will read it even less will make an effort themselves to shed light on the subjects in your book and on this page. Unfortunately, I feel these discussions will likely fall on deaf ears.

The topics of a backlash and downward spiral were mentioned above. It upsets me deeply that racism has not gone away in this country. I see prejudice every day in NYC, from all sides. The other day I was reading a message board for people looking to relocate. You can ask questions about various cities throughout the U.S. I am amazed. On one thread, someone wrote, “America is definitely a white country. The USA was built up by white people for white people. Are you trying to tell me this isn’t the case?” to which the writer received this response: “I hear you. But its [sic] changing rapidly. Pretty soon we will be the minority, and then its revenge time!!”

It seems pretty plausible that the US’s attempts to make all other countries in the conform to our ideas/ideals of what is better has caused this kind of racist resurgence, and backlash not only from other countries but also from the religious right. I also feel that England has a lot of answering to do, as their hopes to dominate the world set many wheels in motion, the effectsof which still reverberate. I recently read a very informative article entitled “Lines in the Sand” by F. S. Naiden, in the Winter 2007 issue of the Wilson Quarterly. It explains how the Brits planned and orchestrated the etablishment of Iraq and selected whom they wished to rule as leader. An eye-opener!

I know I’ve rambled on a bit. It’s just that the posts here have got me thinking of so many things. I do not know what to DO about all these political and economic issues, and I feel more powerless than ever before.

When?

brian, for most of us this sounds like false nostalgia but when i went out into the world, talking to regular people in Karachi, Beirut, Munich, or even Jakarta, there was this sense of wonder and excitement about America and its patented “dream.” we have to remember not everyone has the Zinn/Chomsky analysis. they take the good with the bad. but these people are the ones now turning - you may say, “it’s about time!” - but my point is that if they are turning it’s huge. and it mirrors the shift of the formerly anti-imperialist war Left.

One of my particular interests is the intra-capitalist struggle. In fact, I see it as the fundamental struggle of the contemporary form of social organization. As Veblen said at the beginning of the 20th century, the large-scale businessman controls the exigencies of the community. Their concern is with each other, more so than with us. In this way, they are little different than the lords of the feudal era who only worried about the peasants when an uprising erupted. Then, all the lords would come together to ensure the continuity of the status quo. Within the status quo it is a constant tumult of oneupmanship and differential battles for power.