Letters
Letters Editors: I very much appreciated the symposium on Jeffrey C. Isaac's critique of a revived progressivism and his hymn to localist democracy ("The Poverty of Progressivism,"...
...The Editors Reply: For the beginning of a response to the above questions, see this issue's Editor's Page.—Eos...
...Editors: Dissent is always interesting, but I wonder about the balance of articles in each issue...
...The New Left position: culture, politics, and "home...
...No good purpose can be served by once again forcing people to choose sides between national reforms and local action, between electoral politics and community organization...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...Letters must be kept to about 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...The standard Old Left position on these three choices would be politics, political economy, and "abroad...
...Can such a twotrack strategy, with its concomitant division of activist labor, really succeed in changing American politics...
...If we are going to have any hope of reviving a left politics, surely the slogan of "Think globally, act locally" (or is it the other way around?—no matter) must be a constant reminder that all efforts are valuable and perhaps even necessary...
...No one way is always or even ultimately preferable to another...
...How do you decide about the relative weight assigned, say, to culture and politics (culture has been coming back strong in recent Dissents), or to politics and political economy (you are not as strong on economics as you used to be), or to politics-at-home and abroad (I notice a greater emphasis on "home" since the electoral disaster of '94...
...SPRING • 1997 • 127...
...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...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, selfaddressed envelopes...
...Just ask Newt...
...Still, I am concerned that the discussion surrounding the piece so quickly replicated what Amitai Etzioni calls the "malaise of either/or...
...At the risk of replacing "either/or" with an equally trite "both/and," let me note that a two-track strategy is really all we have to work with...
...Ending the war in Vietnam, as many have long acknowledged, required the tireless activity not only of people in the street but also of people in the halls of government...
...We are unable to acknowledge letters...
...Where exactly do you stand...
...So if you want to write about something that you like, or dislike, in or about Dissent, please do it quickly...
...D To Letter Writers • We welcome succinct letters from our readers...
...Class does not always trump race or gender, and building houses with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity is no substitute for an effective program of public housing...
...The visionaries seeking to transform society through new reform programs or electoral vehicles must continue striving for utopia, while being called back to reality by the diversity of needs and experiences our large country contains...
...In other words, local activists must pursue their work while simultaneously searching for common ground with others in the midst of other projects...
...Letters Editors: I very much appreciated the symposium on Jeffrey C. Isaac's critique of a revived progressivism and his hymn to localist democracy ("The Poverty of Progressivism," Fall 1996...
Vol. 44 • April 1997 • No. 2
