Robert Reich's Reason
I just finished reading Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America, by Robert B. Reich, and I loved it. His thoughts are stimulating and his writing is clear and straightforward. The book is a good pick-me-up, too, for those suffering post-election blues.
There were several passages that I marked as I read, that I wanted to note down someplace, so they end up here.
To understand their radicalism [i.e., that of the radical conservatives, or "radcons"], you need to understand their notion of evil.
To Radcons, the major threat to the security of our nation, the stability of our families, our future propserity, and the capacity of our children to grow into responsible adults is a dark, satanic force. It exists within America in the form of moral deviance — out-of-wedlock births, homosexuality, abortion, crime. It potentially exists within every one of us in the form of sloth and devastating irresponsibilitiy. It exists outside America in the form of "evil empires" or an "axis of evil."
There's no compromising with such evil. It has to be countered with everything we have. Religious faith and discipline are the means of redemption. Punishment and coercion are the only real deterrents. Fear is the essential motivator.
(page 22)
Radcons have blended Christian fundamentalism and right-wing moralism into their larger worldview. Unrestrained sex, they believe, unleahses an evil that hides inside human beings. It threatens the social order. Therefore it must be controlled. The evil sexual impulses inside us have to be disciplined, just as evil forces from outside have to be. The war on sexual "deviancy" is, in this respect, a lot like the war on terrorism: If we lose, Western civilization may fall into chaos.
(page 58)
A society is different from an economy. People aren't just buyers and sellers in a market. They're also citizens engaged in a joint project of improving the well-being of current and future generations.
Radcons are imposing on America a crimped and narrow definition of prosperity. They've given us policies premised on the hypothetical power of human greed and fear. [….]
This Radcon promise of prosperity is an illusion. Perhaps is was well suited to a frontier economy, but it's shamefully inappropirate to a post-industrial society that depends on what we achieve together. [….]
Our real prosperity depends on what we achieve together. This has been a central tenet of American liberalism for over a century, and it's more relevant than ever. In America in the twenty-first century, real prosperity is shared prosperity. That's what we are losing rapidly and that's why Radcons are wrong and their thinking is dangerously obsolete.
(pages 144-145)
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on Saturday, 5 March 2005 at 16.52
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[…] y head) for the past several months. The best way in would seem to be Robert Reich's explanation of the Right's notion of evil, and how eradicating evil is the most important thing to do. Thi […]