Sunday, December 05, 2004

Altercation or Domination? A Response to Eric Alterman

By Jordy Cummings

Read full article...

Posted 12/05 | Add a Comment

    Comments:

    You must register to comment.

    Login | Register

  1. In case ya’ll missed it before, here’s the Federation on Alterman:


    http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/federation09252004/

    Posted by Federation Ally from  on  12/05  at  11:16 PM

  2. Let us keep the comments brief for the psy/war capabilities that we have here on Herr Alterman.  We should put together an Alterman reader, to watch out for his type....

    Its Eric Alterman...don’t look...wait...Paul Berman is creeping up, along with Todd Gitlin and George Packer.  Hitchens and Sullivan are in the back smoking cigarettes and planning with the cryogenically frozen Leo Strauss, back from the dead, and of course Ron Silver, who was damned good in Blue Steel.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  12/06  at  12:51 AM

  3. So I did read Alterman’s comments on Jordie and the comments ... Obviously the whole Jordie’s kid-sister thing was weak. I also read A. waving all criticism of his again appealing to his self-endowed Judge of Political Lunacy authority. I guess that’s the guy’s style ... what previously caused me to raise an eyebrow here. I think he’s shown that airy dismissal’s all he’s got here. (I found it appropriate that both Cockburn and Alterman recently swatted at the WSJ editorial page ...  a clear sign of boredom.)

    Posted by Theo from Greece  on  12/06  at  12:10 PM

  4. I mean ... waving away ...

    Posted by Theo from Greece  on  12/06  at  12:16 PM

  5. My name’s spelled with a Y, punk.  Though its not quite as bad as my Scottish professor who spelled it “Geordie” lol.

    Seriously though, Alterman should be discredited before he does more damage, and/or he should be shamed into publicly altering his position.  I recall a few years back, Susan Sontag was being given an award from the Israeli state, Cockburn and Said were all over her in columns, and in turn, in Israel, she gave a speech that offended her host Shimon Peres, accusing the Israelis rightfully of apartheid.

    I think that purity is not what I aim for so much as to ensure that the clock isnt turned back to the days of Palestinians-are-terorrists.  Even Christopher Hitchens is still Pro-Palestinian, as is P.J. O’Rourke, as is even Francis Fukuyama and Paul Wolfowitz (who wrote his PHD on why Israel should not develop nukes, and unlike other neocons has openly spoken about a Palestinian state prompting boos at a Zionist rally.) In other words, the issue of Palestine as a contiguous state is about 90 percent official US policy.  The ten percent is the fading out of Krauthammers and Altermans, but they can do damage.  I can understand if he feels some sense of attachment to Israel...many of his generation do for understandable if thoroughly fraudulent reasons.  But this goes beyond petty arguments over Lenin or Walter Reuther, Socialism or Communism or any theoretical debate that the Dissent crowd pushes towards the Marxist left...this is about a people who exist, and other people who want to deny that...its about, as Primo Levi, the great Italian Jewish writer put it, “the Jews of the Middle East” Anyone with a passing familiarity with Jewish experience can see Zionism as an imitation of what was done to its practicioners grandparents in the past.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  12/06  at  01:02 PM

  6. j, -y. My bad. I want to respond to your suggestion that A. ‘should be discredited before he does more damage, and/or he should be shamed into publicly altering his position’. Again, I find the phrase in question, that ‘the Palestinians have yet to demonstrate that they are politically ready for the compromises necessary to accept Israel’s permanent existence on its borders’, shaded with supercilious, authoritarian, and, yes, imperialist thought. But it remains hypocritical for me to advocate that, for what may be only ungraceful theoretical slippage, A. be discredited as succumbing to some strange colonial lusts; to casually dismiss him as an ‘imperialist’ or pigeonhole him as a Zionist crank.

    Posted by Theo from Greece  on  12/06  at  06:36 PM

  7. Theoretical slippage...hmmm....well I am probably guilty of anti-humanist Zizeko-Althuserianism and ultra-humanist Chomsko-Dewey-Neibhur type thinking.  In other words, I think humans are corrupt and therefore they are perfect divine creatures.  I am not kidding at all...I think that humanism can only be humanist by being anti-humanist, and vice versa.

    But in regards to L.A.S. (Little Arthur Schlesinger aka Alterman,) I don’t know if shaming will work but I do know that among his fans on the liberal blog/comment site Atrios/Daily Kos, he has lost quite a few fans since his recent anti-Chomsky tirade and continuous defense of Paul Berman and the neo-CCF types. There is an inter-Democrat scandal, placing the DNC New Republic thoroughly unpopular types on one side, with the popular if spineless and naive Trippi/Deaniac and exDLC types like Gore on the other.  What side of that will Alterman land on?  His bread has margarine on both sides regardless.  Bland.

    “they’re fighting among themselves”

    Posted by j cummings from  on  12/06  at  11:25 PM

  8. I’m just trying to be fair here. So, are you saying human perfection resides in humanity’s perfectability? And that corruptibleness implies a previous, integral human condition?

    Posted by Theo from Greece  on  12/07  at  09:16 AM

  9. I don’t so much believe in a previous unsullied tradition, ala neoplatonism or Christianity.  I do believe that there is no contradiction, however, in believing in human nature/agency, and believing that said nature/agency, can progress and regress.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  12/07  at  06:09 PM
    10. Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. {/if}

    Next entry: Fueling a Profitable Future: 9/11 and U.S. Energy Policy

    Previous entry: Securing Canadian Political Obeisance: Halifax Greets Bush

    [ads]

    Support Press Action