६ फेब्रुवारी, २०२२

"After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science in 1959 at 16 as class valedictorian, he studied mathematics at Harvard. A clean-cut supporter of Adlai E. Stevenson..."

"... he fell in love with a woman whose parents had been communists. She opened his eyes to folk music and to an outlaw culture that fascinated him, and he became involved with a peace group called Tocsin. Before he graduated in 1963, he met Tom Hayden and other leaders of what was then a tiny organization, Students for a Democratic Society. 'I wanted to be like them,' [Todd] Gitlin wrote in 'The Sixties.' 'These exalted, clear, somehow devout souls so loved the world.'"

From "Todd Gitlin, a Voice and Critic of the New Left, Dies at 79/He earned his stripes in the antiwar movement of the 1960s. In his later years, he was often critical of his erstwhile kindred spirits" (NYT).

Note the centrality of love. You have someone super-smart — valedictorian at Bronx Science at 16 — and studying math at Harvard, supporting the Democratic Party candidate, and he falls in love. He joins up with radicals because, in them, he perceives love

Or so his story is told in the NYT obituary.

I see I have a tag for Todd Gitlin, and I'm surprised to see that I've used it 9 times in the 18-year history of this blog. In 2015, I quoted something he'd written in 2003:

"My generation of the New Left — a generation that grew as the war went on — relinquished any title to patriotism without much sense of loss. All that was left to the Left was to unearth righteous traditions and cultivate them in universities. The much-mocked political correctness of the next academic generations was a consolation prize. We lost — we squandered the politics — but won the textbooks."

२७ टिप्पण्या:

Kai Akker म्हणाले...

---- Note the centrality of love.

Alternate translation: need. The clubbiness of the New Left filled a need for him. Its messianism: Belonging. Fantasizing. Projecting.

Howard म्हणाले...

*Squandered politics won textbooks*

Exactly

Rollo म्हणाले...

The politics was never theirs to squander. Given how things were could the left have done any thing else? The communes didn't last, and there were only so many openings for labor organizers, a job few really wanted anyway. The universities, though, were waiting for activist professors with open arms, salaries, tenure, and health insurance.

My takeaway though, is how mortality overshadows all the politics.

John henry म्हणाले...

Meet the new left, same as the old left.

John LGBTQBNY Henry

hawkeyedjb म्हणाले...

"These...devout souls so loved the world." They just hate most of the people in it.

Kai Akker म्हणाले...

---'I wanted to be like them,' [Todd] Gitlin wrote in 'The Sixties.' 'These exalted, clear, somehow devout souls so loved the world.'

Note the religiosity of his language. "Exalted" and "devout"; even "clear," in this context. Gitlin loved the purity, the devotion, and the unambiguous purpose that he sensed about the extreme New Lefties. He wanted to join their exalted company.

But love? Mark Rudd so loved the world that he was attempting to blow it up when he made a mistake and blew himself up. Bernardine Dohrn loved?

Don't be naive. As hawkeyedjb says, these people hated. They bonded over their shared hatred. Whatever psychic pain this hatred temporarily salved for them, they were not analysts, intellectual, or reasoned. They were a sect of true believers. When you hate your own society so purely, it must become so easy to feel the need to kill it. That starts with killing the people in it.

Look at the products of the Russian Revolution, where this type got its chance. Gitlin's brain power must have been only an adjunct to his emotional needs. He says himself that he wanted to be accepted into this group of pure, certain, superior souls. Sad and frightening, since no amount of learning can stay that irrational need.



Kevin म्हणाले...

Note the centrality of love.

To be an advocate of free speech requires love for your fellow man.

There is no love in censorship. The “righteousness” of the reason is always outweighed by the damage it requires.

Temujin म्हणाले...

"These exalted, clear, somehow devout souls so loved the world.'"

It's always been amazing to me how the true believers on the Left truly think they are doing what's best for the world by tearing down the very soul of the culture they live in. Despite the clear track record of a philosophy that regularly kills entire blocks of people, totaling millions of souls over the last century, they still see love for the cause, still feel that they are the good in all things.

I've never understood it, nor the attraction that otherwise bright people have in following bad people presiding over a philosophy of destruction.

Kai Akker म्हणाले...

My bad; Mark Rudd's group did blow up their own building and three of them died in the explosion, but Rudd himself was not one of them. He went underground and is still with us, I see now.

Wince म्हणाले...

Let's see...

(1) Gitlin rode the wave of "Occupy Wall Street" and other "Popular Uprisings" until Wall Street co-opted the left.

HARPERCOLLINS SPEAKERS BUREAU
THE PREMIER LECTURE AGENCY FOR AUTHORS

Todd Gitlin
Columbia Journalism Professor, Sociologist, Activist

SPEAKING TOPICS
Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street
The Globalization of Popular Uprisings
American Politics: Movements and Parties
The '60s and the '10s: Continuities and Changes
The Futures of Journalism, Fiction, and Just Plain Writing in a Digital Age
The New Media and the Revolts Against the Rulers


(2) Now that Wall Street has co-opted the left, and OWS evaporated, Gitlin writes a paean to the deep state with Bill Kristol decrying "Popular Uprisings."

An open letter in defense of democracy | Column
From the left, the right and in between, we writers, academics and activists are joining together to defend liberal democracy and confront the danger facing America.

Todd Gitlin is professor of Journalism, Sociology and Communications, Columbia University

Jeffrey C. Isaac is the James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington

William Kristol is Editor at Large, The BulwarkDirector, Defending Democracy Together

We vigorously oppose ongoing Republican efforts to empower state legislatures to override duly appointed election officials and interfere with the proper certification of election results, thereby substituting their own political preferences for those expressed by citizens at the polls.

We vigorously oppose the relentless and unending promotion of unprofessional and phony “election audits” that waste public money, jeopardize public electoral data and voting machines, and generate paranoia about the legitimacy of elections.

We urge the Democratic-controlled Congress to pass effective, national legislation to protect the vote and our elections, and if necessary to override the Senate filibuster rule.

And we urge all responsible citizens who care about democracy — public officials, journalists, educators, activists, ordinary citizens — to make the defense of democracy an urgent priority now.

Now is the time for leaders in all walks of life — for citizens of all political backgrounds and persuasions — to come to the aid of the Republic.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

So he’s a good lefty at last? Seems that way.

robother म्हणाले...

"Earned his stripes in the antiwar movement..."

Probably intentionally ironic, but accurate. Most of the men who came of age in the 60s grew up with heroic images of our fathers' generation WWII soldiering. Old fatigues were the male default antiwar protestor wear on college campuses. While I came to see Vietnam as a pointless war lead by incompetent liars, I nevertheless have always felt less of a man around my younger brother who was drafted and wounded in Vietnam.

narciso म्हणाले...

no that was bill ayers cell, the bomb was meant for fort dix, had it gone off, there would have been nowhere he was safe, instead he killed his girlfriend diana oughton, who sissy spacek, sort of played in the rebel, with henry winkler as the ayers figure, running on empty was also about ayers, jennifer connelly was a similar figure in coming up for air or something,

William म्हणाले...

I remember that joke during the Reagan years: The left took over the English Department and the right took over the Presidency. Well, the left went on and took over the Manhattan DA's office, the FBI, and the frontal lobe of two generations of students..... Gitlin thought the left was a barren teat, but he found sustenance and nurture sucking at it. I read the obit. He had a pretty good life.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"'These exalted, clear, somehow devout souls so loved the world.'"

Tom Hayden? More than, say, William F. Buckley?

"We lost — we squandered the politics — but won the textbooks."

But since politics is downstream from culture, they won anyway.

Gitlin's career is a trail of honest misjudgments. I guess you have to be very smart to be wrong so long.

BUMBLE BEE म्हणाले...

Talkers, Messiahs, Influencers - Hard Life. Love requires hard work. Manipulation doesn't fit 'into that description.

Ice Nine म्हणाले...

They "squandered the politics — but won the textbooks."

Yes they did. And now they are on their fourth generation of young Americans being commie-indoctrinated by those very textbooks. A nation doesn't come back from that.

News flash: They won the politics too.

Michael K म्हणाले...

I was an Adlai Stevenson supporter at age 18. Then I took an Economics class.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent म्हणाले...


“"These...devout souls so loved the world." They just hate most of the people in it.”

Well, yes. Though a good deal younger than the Class of ‘68, I’ve enjoyed watching them betray their stated values, in the service of their own fat gut, at every turn. Who are the most avid supporters of censorship, blacklisting, political corruption, and (most hilariously) the FBI and the CIA, today?

William म्हणाले...

Adlai Stevenson was smart in the way smart people are smart, but I wouldn't want him running D-Day or getting Patton and Montgomery to work together. Adlai would have never sent the troops in at Little Rock to make desegregation happen and he criticized Eisenhower for doing so. At the end of his life, Stevenson admitted that Eisenhower was the wiser choice and wondered whether his own life had been lived in vain.....From the obit, I get the impression that Gitlin wasn't much tortured with self doubt. I guess that's a blessing.

rehajm म्हणाले...

Earned his stripes in the antiwar movement...

...spellcheck changed burned to earned.

YoungHegelian म्हणाले...

Maybe someday someone will write a decent social history of the fatal attraction that American Jews have with the Left, especially the Far Left. I've read Norman Podhoretz's book and found it lacking. (This symposium discussion is more interesting).

It seems as they left the ancestral faith behind, another secular faith immediately moved into their psyches to replace it. Gitlin was just one example among many.

Why? This wasn't the normal immigrant experience of any other group.**

** Even though, there are some surprises. You know which immigrant group had the highest percentage of Communist Party membership among its ranks? Most folks, even Jews, would say Jews. Nope, they were #2. The prize goes to the Finns in the Midwest, who were very active in the Unions.

MadTownGuy म्हणाले...

Kai Akker said...

"---'I wanted to be like them,' [Todd] Gitlin wrote in 'The Sixties.' 'These exalted, clear, somehow devout souls so loved the world.'

Note the religiosity of his language. "Exalted" and "devout"; even "clear," in this context. Gitlin loved the purity, the devotion, and the unambiguous purpose that he sensed about the extreme New Lefties. He wanted to join their exalted company.
"

For 'religiosity' I suggest 'cult-likeness,' since the leadership requires unquestioning obedience from the adherents.

Kai Akker म्हणाले...

Thanks, Narciso, but I thought Ayers was in the midwest. I also thought the police had found Mark Rudd's ring in the wreckage. Lastly, IIRC, the townhouse they blew themselves up in was next door to Dustin Hoffman's. What a concatenation of ironies and other intersections of American celebrity life and celebrity politics. The Weatherman or -men included some of the worst creeps in American history. They make Aaron Burr look almost angelic.

Love. What an Althouse misfire.

Caligula म्हणाले...

Todd Gitlin allowed the passions of his youth to rule his entire life. Somehow that hardly seems a success story.

At a minimum, one wonders: did he ever have second thoughts about the righteousness of his (always-trendy) causes, or even seriously question any element of leftist political orthodoxy? Or was he always ready to pivot on a dime whenever that orthodoxy changed?

effinayright म्हणाले...

William said...
Adlai Stevenson was smart in the way smart people are smart, but I wouldn't want him running D-Day or getting Patton and Montgomery to work together. Adlai would have never sent the troops in at Little Rock to make desegregation happen and he criticized Eisenhower for doing so. At the end of his life, Stevenson admitted that Eisenhower was the wiser choice and wondered whether his own life had been lived in vain.....From the obit, I get the impression that Gitlin wasn't much tortured with self doubt. I guess that's a blessing.
************

For some reason I've always been struck by Stevenson's undignified end, dropping dead while walking in London.

Plop.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

@effinayright, for undignified ends you cannot beat Nelson Rockefeller, suffering a heart attack while boinking a mistress (he apparently had more than one) in a hideaway New York townhouse where he did “research” with her “assistance.”