LETTERS
Editors: Upon receiving my Summer 1989 issue of Dissent, I was dismayed to see that you had changed the title of my review of Arno Mayer's book without consulting me. My title— "The Holocaust as...
...Editors: After reviewing educational philosophies from Plato to Allan Bloom, Richard Rorty (Dissent, Spring 1989) settles down to complain: college professors who once served as free-wheeling social critics are now obliged to teach basic facts to "students who are already too old and too restless to put up with such a process...
...It is worth noting that this weakness, if it is a weakness, is one they share with many non-Marxist theorists...
...I regret the titles you substituted — "Distorting the Holocaust" (on the cover) and "The Holocaust Distorted" —because I believe them too emotive and open to the unfortunate inference of an accusation of dishonesty...
...Lots of money could bring real improvements through attracting able professionals to the field and reducing class sizes and teaching loads...
...The dubious implication is that somehow younger students are less restless than those at college and more compliant when it comes to assimilating facts...
...q Whose Job to Teach What...
...Thus it was usually possible to discern links between theoretical and political positions even if the relations were complex...
...For example, the works of three major liberal theorists of justice, Dworkin, Rawls, and Joseph Raz, do not indicate what kind of concrete changes they think would be necessary in the real world in order for it to become a just world...
...Our organization, with a membership of three million, feels deeply hurt at this great loss to high idealism of the intellectuals and the fighting spirit of the working class...
...Realistically, however, it is difficult to believe that lots of money will be forthcoming and, indeed, it is difficult to find a period in our history when public education was really flush...
...From Przeworski's conclusions it follows that Western social democracy, for the first time in its history, WINTER • 1990 • 127 Letters no longer has a distinctive strategy and therefore is probably doomed as a political current...
...Michael Harrington, the socialist thinker and a friend of the downtrodden...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...What secondary education needs, he says, is "lots of money and determination...
...Before Pinochet's rule, "Chile never had left-wing guerrilla groups...
...Enjoyable as the essays were, I want to take issue here with part of David Plotke's essay on the relationship of Marxists to contemporary political theory...
...Plotke's example of Przeworski's work on social democracy is very informative...
...was meant to focus on what I believed to be the essence of Mayer's interpretation...
...College teachers may find consolation in the fact that teaching basic history—unadorned by elegant criticism—has long been an important part of the college curriculum and as yet constitutes dignified and honest toil...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes...
...Letters must be kept to about 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...As a high school teacher, I can attest to a restlessness among the student body that surely must rival that reported by Rorty at institutions of higher learning...
...In fact, a Trotskyist group known as the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) engaged in significant guerrilla activity during Allende's period in office, and the MIR and the Maoist Revolutionary Communist party both did their best to undermine Allende's reformist government by eroding his support among radicalized peasants...
...Editors: Thank you for the issue of Dissent (Summer 1989) containing the symposium on the current state of Anglophone political theory...
...The difficulty of identifying any such relation for a work such as Cohen's is a function neither of a wholesome theoretical modesty nor a corrupt integration into academia but of the limits of more-or-less orthodox Marxist categories with respect to contemporary political life...
...What Plotke interprets as a "separation of Marxist theory from politics" is in fact simply a new modesty about what global conclusions can be honestly drawn from careful and detailed studies of more local problems...
...But because we have a long "lead time" for each issue, you have to send us your letter within three weeks after getting an issue of Dissent in order to get it into the next issue...
...Though a citizen of USA, Michael belonged to the World and hundreds of papers and essays written by him stand a testimony to his sincerity, integrity, and devotion to the cause he loved most...
...But what is more important is that this failure to try to answer every single question is simply good and honest intellectual practice...
...When Allende became president in 1970, a socialist was elected to power in Latin America for the first time in history...
...q 128 • DISSENT...
...Nothing follows from this about what is the correct strategy for workingclass movements in contemporary capitalism, and it would be intellectually dishonest to pretend that it did...
...Instead of bemoaning their fate, college educators should reconcile themselves to students arriving deficient in the basic understanding of history and culture...
...My personal relationship with Michael began in 1958 when I first visited the United States and since then he always had a place in his heart for the poor of India...
...The faithfulness of the author of Karl Marx's Theory of History to his conception of the Marxist tradition suggests that if his analysis had generated major political insights modesty would not have kept the latter out of its pages...
...Rorty suggests that the college problem arises from the failure of high schools to do their job...
...Editors: The Socialists of India and the workers affiliated to Hind Mazdoor Sabha were shocked and grieved to know about the sad demise of our friend and colleague Mr...
...Cohen...
...In virtually all variants of the Marxist tradition it was believed that there ought to be heavy traffic between theoretical arguments and the assessment of practical political choices...
...So if you want to write about something that you like, or dislike, in or about Dissent, Please do it quickly...
...To Letter Writers • We welcome succinct letters from our readers...
...Determination...
...Editors: Tina Rosenberg's "Will Democracy Come to Chile...
...Plotke complains about the impossibility of reading off the politics of many current Marxist theorists from their substantive academic work...
...Actually, the first was Jacobo Arbenz, elected in Guatemala in November 1950 and overthrown in 1954 in a coup much more blatantly supported by the CIA than the one that overthrew Allende...
...First in defense of G.A...
...My title— "The Holocaust as Byproduct...
...Over the past decade the political morality of socialism has been the main focus of his work, and he has been engaged in the project which Plotke recommends to him, of "arguing with Dworkin and Rawls about relations among various equalities and between rights and conditions" for most of that time...
...I would not have accepted them had I been consulted...
...He does indeed have views on politics, albeit at a relatively high level of abstraction, which, while they are not dealt with in his book on historical materialism, Plotke should have encountered in at least two of the other books which he discusses...
...Surely the high school teacher must possess uncommon determination if only through the necessity of having to face each day upwards of one hundred and fifty restless adolescents...
...Dissent, Summer 1989) helped me place Chile's problems in perspective against the larger Latin American background, but there were two flaws in this otherwise fine piece that I think should be corrected...
Vol. 37 • January 1990 • No. 1
