Twenty years ago a strong academic left in universities all over the world spoke to political culture the way that a globalized nationalist far-right seems to now. Among public intellectuals in the U.S., Richard Rorty’s name held particular sway. Yet in his contrarian 1998 book Achieving Our Country, Rorty argued against the participation of philosophy in politics. A member of the so-called “Old Left,” or what he called the “reformist left,” Rorty took on the “Cultural Left” in ways we now hear in (often bitter) debates between similar camps. In the course of his attacks, he made the uncanny prediction in pic related.
The cultural left, wrote Rorty, had come “to give cultural politics preference over real politics, and to mock the very idea that democratic institutions might once again be made to serve social justice.” He foresaw cultural politics on the left as contributing to a tidal wave of resentment that would one day result in a time when “all the sadism which the academic left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back.”
One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. The words [slur for an African-American that begins with “n”] and [slur for a Jewish person that begins with “k”] will once again be heard in the workplace. All the sadism which the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back. All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.
>[slur for an African-American that begins with “n”] >[slur for a Jewish person that begins with “k”]
Evan Robinson
Anyone could have predicted this kind of shit even going so back to the mid-1980s when idpol was beginning to arise. It makes sense he wrote this in '98 when Clinton was allowing for jobs to be outsourced left and right and the academic left was too concerned with postmodernist drivel in order to care.
And Trump isn't going to roll back LGBTQ rights. That's a scare-tactic myth.
Lincoln Sullivan
I'm surprised it took this long to happen. If the magical unicorn of our dreams hadn't come along in 2008 I think "Trump" could have/would have happened sooner.
Daniel Campbell
why does this 20 year old paper look like it was written on fucking papyrus?
Zachary Gray
Either it's a shitty photo or the book was printed on cheapass paper
Dominic Hernandez
>And Trump isn't going to roll back LGBTQ rights. That's a scare-tactic myth.
Yet many Trump supporters are hoping that he actually does
Owen Thompson
Ah yes, the statistically verifiable "Many."
Ian Bell
Rorty is as bad as any of them. I was reading his "Irony, Contingency, Solidarity" recommended by someone on here. He's going on about how there is no way to know anything, only competing languages and that instead of arguing about facts in order to find the truth (since that's impossible), you should play language tricks to deconstruct the opponent's language instead. Typical modern cultural leftist way of thinking even if he's supposedly an analytical philosopher or whatever.
Then saying a "liberal" society should accept whatever language people end up using because only the properties of the language itself that give it fitness to become agreed upon amongst people are what give it validity, rather than any conformance to reality. What I can't determine is based on his own argument, what's wrong with a radical right-wing worldview? It's just as valid as any other according to him.
Samuel Anderson
>One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. >actually thinking thats whats happening
get off pol
Sebastian Watson
>Yet many Trump supporters are hoping that he actually does Are they?
Lucas Reed
Some are.
Christian Price
...
Owen Collins
I am
Jordan Thompson
By that logic then there will be no muslims in this country
Jason Moore
I know I am
Jace Perez
Dont tease me!
Justin Cook
that doesn't change the fact that it won't happen under Trump. Someone else, maybe, but not Trump.
Austin Hall
It turned out that the academic left was a big part of this and encouraged the targeting of whites , particularly white males by SJWs . The SJWs themselves can't really do anything by themselves, but when the white people try to defend themselves they are thrown out of class and even expelled
Jackson Edwards
Probably an aged cellophane projector slide and not actually paper would be my guess.
Gavin Gray
Interesting thread get on this pol
Luke Foster
>And Trump isn't going to roll back LGBTQ rights. That's a scare-tactic myth. I think the point is that it isn't the strongman who does it, but the populace who are tired of the tyrannical dictates of "intellectuals."
Asher Allen
Spengler predicted the same thing a hundred years ago. The thing is the strong man isn't a good sign at all. A strong man is like putting a band aid on a gushing wound.It's a sign that our condition is terminal and death is imminent.
We need much more than a strong man. We need heroes. Strong men are titans that only manifest the will to power for personal glory. We need heroes that manifest the spirit of martyrdom and have the idealism necessary to create something new.
I read this book over ten years ago. It was fascinating. Richard Rorty really got several things. He understood the cultural left was philosophically incompetent that cultural relativism was self defeating (both logically and in practice). He also understood the dire need for a national identity. He understood that you need a positive American narrative to create a real political movement. He was reaching out to the cultural left and hoping to convince them to not be fucking crazy, that not being fucking crazy was the only way to preserve the cultural progress they did make. If only he was alive to see the Progressive Stack and other SJW bullshit take down Occupy. He predicted this could happen. He knew the Left self sabotaged itself in the 70's and could again.
I like Rorty as a philosopher in some ways and I think he is often misread. I also owe him for thoroughly convincing me that national identity is vital. I proudly voted for Donald J. Trump.
Nathaniel Flores
>What I can't determine is based on his own argument, what's wrong with a radical right-wing worldview? It's just as valid as any other according to him. He actually didn't think relativism was philosophically coherent. He literally said that often times the only way to settle a political disagreement is by picking up a gun. He was left wing because of empathy. He essentially had a circuitous argument that ended up at humanism. I think humanism is immoral and only serves to tear down your fellow man while only pretending to rise other people up.
Jacob Gomez
Oh come on, it is very prescient. Give the man some credit. Rorty was also a boogieman of the Academic Right and was often included in articles condemning postmodernism.
Benjamin Rivera
Pense was the VP pick to satisfy them. Trump said that gay marriage is settled law.
