Geras hears some thumping noises...

I assume that by now everybody here has read Paul Berman's Dissent piece. Norm Geras (who is a Marxist himself, and one who agrees with Berman) decided to discuss the article past a simple me-too: after summarizing Berman's six thumped reasons and adding a seventh, non-thumped one, he asks:

"Does any of these reasons have priority for the distinctively socialist far left, some of it of Marxist persuasion or at any rate formation, and amongst whom I would reckon cultural relativist and postmodern tropes are generally weak?"

...which he then goes on to give his opinion on. It's a preliminary piece, but one of some interest.

Moe

PS: My opinion about Berman? Shoot, it wasn't like he was thumping the table and shouting at me, was it? I'm a Rightie who supported the war. I think that Berman may have been wasting his time, but it's his to waste. Although I do wonder if the session happened in exactly that way. Half-drunken eloquence is more often spoken of than seen.

Comments

[Gary Farber]

"Although I do wonder if the session happened in exactly that way."

I'm quite sure there was no such literal session, and probably only one or more sessions vaguely along those lines. I never assumed that there was any reason we were supposed to take a political polemic as a literal narrative; I don't believe there is any such obligation; it's a common literary device, is all.

*Thump!*

[Matt Weiner]

I ask--how did Berman slide from "The War on Iraq is an antifascist war" to "The Afghans and Iraqis need more help"? There were many on the left who thought that one problem with the "On to Iraq!" policy was that it diverted resources away from the reconstruction of Afghanistan. (Which is a mild way of putting it.)