November 13, 2016

Word from 17 years ago


Richard Rorty wrote this in 1999, in his book, Achieving Our Country
Via Kraig

1 comment:

Larry said...

Chris Hedges quotes this same passage from Rorty more completely in his Death of the Liberal Class, 2010, p. 35:

Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. The words "nigger" and "kike" will once again be heard in the workplace. All the sadism that the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back. All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.

and then Hedges goes on:

The hatred for radical Islam will transform itself into a hatred for Muslims. The hatred for undocumented workers in states such as Arizona will become a hatred for Mexicans and Central Americans. The hatred for those not defined as American patriots by a largely white mass movement will become a hatred for African Americans.

Where is this possibly headed? Hedges wrote (p. 34), referring to right-wing groups:

But, as I was told by Fritz Stern, a scholar of fascism and a refugee from Nazi Germany, "In Germany there was a yearning for fascism before fascism was invented." This is the yearning that we now see, and it is dangerous.

https://t.co/MKOCHDXqx7