Editor's Page
Cohen, Mitchell
This issue of Dissent continues our reconsideration of what it means to be "left," with contributions by Anne Phillips and Amos Oz. Both pose sharp questions and recognize that these are...
...Tony Blair's victory is a cause for cheer, no doubt...
...But has Labour embraced Economic Correctness...
...now the Tories have suffered their worst setback since 1832...
...She argues, however, that "differences and inequalities have to be detached from the accident of being born male or female, so that the choices we make and the inequalities we condone reflect individual rather than sexual variation...
...Long ago Antonio Gramsci insisted on the importance of the war of ideas, of undermining the intellectual dominance of the right...
...George asks: what happens when the right, but not the left, is Gramscian...
...He says that readers of Wilson's latest book will become contemptuous of those talking heads who tell us that all would be well if inner-city youth would just be rugged individualists...
...Its decision to hand control of short-term interest rates to the Bank of England isn't auspicious—and it is anything but an extension of social democracy...
...Talk was, not long ago, of Labour's imminent extinction...
...New Labour," coming on the disagreeable heels of our "New Democrat," will pose some challenges to definitions of the "left...
...Phillips is an egalitarian who believes the abolition of all distinctions among people is undesirable...
...SUMMER • 1997 • 3...
...Susan George addresses a corresponding matter...
...Will Britain's new prime minister be likewise...
...One waits for "New Labour" to prove this wrong...
...He is a willing prisoner of Economic Correctness...
...For a quarter-century, right-wing money has wisely invested in intellectuals, journals, and think tanks...
...Such punditry is all too current these days, raising questions about how we achieve "public understanding...
...Certainly the First Lady's husband doesn't stand there, having backed the worst social legislation in six decades (welfare "reform"), and a budget combining tax breaks for the privileged and cutbacks in domestic programs...
...Both pose sharp questions and recognize that these are difficult times for defining the left...
...He speaks for moderation while angrily protesting the West's "pornography of consumption...
...Try to fund-raise for a small, independent magazine of the left...
...In this issue, Zelda Bronstein suggests that feminists have been insufficiently critical of Hillary Clinton, with ramifications for feminist politics—and some leading feminists dissent from her claims...
...Dissent, on the other hand, has never been shy about intelligent argument...
...Surely, the quality of public debate declines...
...One notes that the French socialists defeated the right by opposing Economic Correctness...
...The social consequences of the "birth lottery" is an underlying theme in Richard Rorty's discussion of William Julius Wilson's efforts to determine "why millions of American children are leading miserable lives in the ghettos...
...Blair emphasizes his distance from much of Labour's heritage— so much so that both Newsweek and L'Express put Margaret Thatcher's picture on their election-eve covers, with captions declaring her the victor, whatever the tally...
...Many of Labour's political initiatives are attractive, as Alan Ryan points out...
...Still, they uphold strong commitments to equality-friendly democracy...
...Robert Dahl looks for ways in which citizens can pursue thoughtful public conversation...
...Not so on the left...
...It seems that political worlds can yet be turned upside down...
...Oz urges a sense of balance in the postcommunist world, rejecting the social cruelties of neoliberalism—today's Economic Correctness— as well as the spiritual totalitarianism of religious fundamentalism...
...Although "half of humanity is impoverished and without hope," the well-to-do rush "to earn more than they need so that they can purchase things they don't really want so as to impress strangers they don't care about...
...Critical issues are raised: for example, does a feminist by definition stand on the "left...
Vol. 44 • July 1997 • No. 3
