Re: [sixties-l] Todd Gitlin on the war

From: Jeffrey Blankfort (jab@tucradio.org)
Date: Sun Nov 18 2001 - 23:25:38 EST

  • Next message: Mark Bunster: "Re: [sixties-l] Todd Gitlin on the war (fwd)"

    Marty Jezer wrote:

    >
    > Jeff wrote "Marty, I appreciate that old friendships die hard, but Todd read
    > himself...."
    >
    > Jeff, I met Todd once, back in 1968. (Before he bought his house; he was
    > living in an apartment). I was never active in SDS, though I did hold a
    > membership card during the Carl Oglesby period. I would not call him a
    > friend or a non-friend. But I feel solidarity with brother and sister
    > activists -- with you too, even with our disagreements. It's not like we're
    > in power fighting over the fine points of legislation that is going to
    > affect how people live. Good people, whose basic premise is love of
    > justice, are viewing the current world and national situation from many
    > different angles. No one, in this era or any other, has a hold on the right
    > analysis.
    >
    > Marty
    >
    > ____________________________________________

    I certainly agree, Marty, that no one has or has ever had a
    monopoly on the right analysis. What I insist upon, however, is
    the existence of boundaries that define within the most general
    terms, what is commonly referred to as "the movement." That the
    movement's origins were as an "anti-war movement" and that it
    continued to oppose the extension of US military hegemony either
    through direct or covert intervention, albeit ineffectually, for
    the most part, is something that has to be considered when
    evaluating Gitlin's past and present relationship to the movement.

    I confess I have a difficult time reading Gitlin, because frankly
    I have lost whatever respect I had for his thinking processes.
    That's the subjective. Objectively, his writings reveal him to be
    a subtle apologist for US global policies over the past decade.

    He has every right to his opinions and to insert them into every
    nook and cranny of the mass media that he can. But to do it while
    pretending to representing the movement of the Sixties is not
    acceptable. But it certainly does assure the press will keep
    calling. I don't know what name you have for it, but I, and many
    others, see it as rank opportunism.

    Jeff Blankfort
      
    Marty Jezer wrote:

    Jeff wrote "Marty, I appreciate that old friendships die hard, but
    Todd read himself...."

    Jeff, I met Todd once, back in 1968. (Before he bought his house;
    he was living in an apartment). I was never active in SDS, though
    I did hold a membership card during the Carl Oglesby period. I
    would not call him a friend or a non-friend. But I feel solidarity
    with brother and sister activists -- with you too, even with our
    disagreements. It's not like we're in power fighting over the fine
    points of legislation that is going to affect how people live.
    Good people, whose basic premise is love of justice, are viewing
    the current world and national situation from many different
    angles. No one, in this era or any other, has a hold on the right
    analysis.

    Marty



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