asks why segments of the left have so much trouble listening to each other
Barkan, Joanne
DEAR I knew something had gone wrong by the time the Dissent public forum called "Patriotism in a Time of War" ended that evening last October in New York City. Some people in the audience...
...But it is a problem if some leftists come across as disdaining the patriotism of other Americans as if there were no difference between patriotism and jingoism...
...Obviously we want DISSENT / Spring 2003 n 9 NOTEBOOK to put out a magazine that attracts and keeps readers, but I've also heard it said that if a magazine of criticism like Dissent doesn't generate enough debate to lose a subscriber now and then, it's not doing its job...
...The next step is to extend the movement into an ongoing opposition to both the foreign and domestic policies of the Bush administration...
...citizens who support progressive causes or consider themselves radical, or voted for Gore or Nader in 2000, or march against war in Iraq also feel patriotic...
...On the one hand, I know I stated more than once that being patriotic has never meant that you shouldn't protest government policies or social conditions and struggle to change them...
...The left's internal debate will no doubt continue.• JOANNE BARKAN is a longtime activist and member of the Dissent editorial board...
...imperialism or have opted to go along with the Bush administration...
...This is incomplete and too simple...
...foreign policy as anti-American or soft on terrorism...
...A canceled subscription isn't necessarily a grave problem for Dissent...
...Leftists who can't fathom or differentiate the patriotism of their own political allies (or potential allies) have to consider why this is so and whether or not it undermines the left...
...left doesn't feel patriotic or make a show of patriotism...
...they labeled anyone who protested U.S...
...DEAR I knew something had gone wrong by the time the Dissent public forum called "Patriotism in a Time of War" ended that evening last October in New York City...
...Meanwhile, on the positive side, the consolidation of a broad-based antiwar movement in the United States has shattered White House dreams of an obedient populace...
...Second, the causes of 9/11...
...For almost a year after 9/11, Bush and his conservative allies painted anyone who questioned White House policy as unpatriotic and a tool of "the enemy...
...This matters because many U.S...
...Still, the gap between what I thought I had communicated and what some listeners heard—and I'm writing here only about my part in the forum—is a problem for me...
...Patriotism is simply a feeling, and it comes in all the usual versions of a feeling: strong, weak, fleeting, latent, and so on...
...I think it's because the intra-left debate has coincided with the Bush administration's attempt to stifle all dissent in the country...
...No administration in decades has made such a concerted effort to silence opposition...
...You can't tell yourself to feel patriotic anymore than you can urge someone else to feel that way...
...This issue came up during all the flag waving immediately after 9/11...
...Rethinking how I would disentangle them for myself, I've come up with three points: r r iRsT, PATRIOTISM and the left...
...With more clarity and closer attention all round, it shouldn't be so hard to avoid this kind of misinterpretation...
...Third, political dissent...
...Why, then, do discussions about patriotism and criticism of some left responses to 9/11 create such controversy...
...The problem is not that part of the U.S...
...Since I despise the Bush administration and wholeheartedly oppose its policies, including the war, this was a jolt...
...A few days later, I heard that you had attended the forum and then canceled your subscription...
...On the other hand, I needed to say more because a string of issues for the left—patriotism, explanations of 9/11, U.S...
...In this environment, the word "patriotism" sets off alarm bells during a debate about the left, and whatever is said risks being identified with (or at least tainted by) the administration's cynical manipulations...
...But criticizing a simplistic blowback theory doesn't mean you condone U.S...
...I don't see a contradiction between the two previous points and the fact that I oppose the Bush administration unequivocally...
...Any serious attempt to understand the causes of 9/11 should also include the Wahhabi brand of fundamentalist Islam, the lack of democracy in Muslim nations, the role of religious brainwashing, the pressures of globalization, and local circumstances (for example, the differences between Afghanistan and Indonesia...
...Some people in the audience (although by no means everyone) seemed to have concluded that the three speakers—all of us Dissent edi torial board members—were arguing that leftists in the United States should be patriotic right now and that patriotism requires supporting the Bush administration's policies, including a war against Iraq...
...imperialism, and political dissent— have gotten badly tangled over the last eighteen months...
...In trying to analyze 9/11, part of the left relied too heavily on the "blowback" notion, which is as follows: American imperialism generates so much ha 92 n DISSENT / Spring 2003 tred for the United States around the world that some of the haters inevitably turn to terrorism...
...Think of Martin Luther King, Jr., whose goal was to make the United States live up to its founding ideals...
Vol. 50 • April 2003 • No. 2
