In essence, therefore, the Left and the Right are the culmination of the Fourth Estate concept, once the prerogative of the press. There are important differences, however. In the olden days, the press was free to debate other parliamentary powers issue by issue. Today, its function (and I’m including here all media) is limited largely to being a mouthpiece, nothing but a channel. Moreover, the worldview it espouses is pre-packaged as it were, designed for mass consumption.
This is especially true of America, where the intellectual has always been in disrepute. France and Italy, France especially, might be different; there has always been a strong intellectual tradition in that country, starting with the Enlightenment through the present. Take the Sartre-Camus-Merleau-Ponty quarrel, for instance, immortalized by Simone de Beauvoir in The Mandarins; or the more recent voices, such as Foucault, Derrida and Lacan. Same for Germany, I suppose, where the dispute between Habermas and Jean-François Lyotard over aspects of modernity and post-modernity kept the European intellectual community riveted and on the edges of their seats. But all indications are that even in Europe, the climate is changing. Indeed, the voice of the Left keeps on reasserting itself, drowning out all the dissident and perhaps more enlightened voices, whether you're listening to BBC or Deutschlandfunk, German national radio. And it’s spreading like wildfire.
In light of the above, it’s little wonder that conservatives and liberals alike are apt to join forces on this or that issue, rather than risk being caught in the ideological battle (or the culture wars, as some have recently called it) between the Right and the Left, with the obvious result that the traditional distinction between the liberals and the conservatives is quickly becoming obsolete, or irrelevant, for practical purposes. All too often, they may find themselves on the same side of the fence.
In my conclusion in Part II, I’ll address the implications, in particular, of why Mr. Prager’s challenge to Mr. Dershowitz is not only unreasonable but disingenuous. In passing, I’ll make a suggestion or two as to what the Israelis could do in order to alleviate the weight of public opinion against them but I don’t hold out much hope for that; things will go on pretty much as they have.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Cindy D
Roger,
Wow! I read it. It was pretty amazing. Now I'll have to think a lot.
Exciting ideas.
2 - Roger Nowosielski
Thank you, Cindy. It blew my mind to once I got into it. Never gave it much thought before. Things are way clearer now. Baronius and Dan Miller steered me in that direction, and I'm thankful.
Roger
3 - Dan(Miller)
Roger,
Good article! I don't agree with everything you say, but then I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.
I will withhold further comment until after Part II appears.
Dan(Miller)
4 - Roger Nowosielski
I am glad, Dan. In a sense, I was conflicted about breaking it up into two parts, but the alternative was equally unattractive. As it is, I don't want to reveal all my cards, although I fail to see how some of you astute individuals will fail to see where I'm going with this.
Roger
5 - Cindy D
Roger,
Did you come here as a child or adult?
6 - Cindy D
(i'm trying to figure out why flower power is distinguished from hippie)
7 - Cindy D
And I know I might sound picky. But,it's not. I can't really understand something if I don't attend to every word as carefully as I can.
8 - Roger Nowosielski
No distinction, Cindy, just alliteration.
Re: your other question, I had a delayed adolescence. But I ain't disclosing my age. Let's just say I was coming of age; and it was the best of times.
Roger
9 - Cindy D
lol
well i know we have the same birth day within days.
mine is Nov. 15
10 - Cindy D
age shmage. my husband is 67
11 - Roger Nowosielski
Well, so you're a Scorpio?
Let's just say I was in a PhD program in 1971 (NYU and the New School) and had a privilege to be exposed to the best minds of the latter 20th century - philosophy, sociology, mathematics, you name it.
12 - Roger Nowosielski
"People in power have been noticing your accomplishments for a while -- they approve."
That's the horoscope, by the way, if you believe in any such thing.
13 - Cindy D
wow new school cool.
you an astrologer?
SDS is active again, i'm sure you know, right?
14 - Cindy D
you should have attached the soundtrack to ohio to your article. (sorry, only i do things like that)
i had to go dig it up.
15 - Roger Nowosielski
New School was great, especially for its interdisciplinary seminars: Chomsky on linguistics and politics (he was young and handsome then), Leontieff, a Noble Prize Winner in economics, things like that. And so was NYU - it was a seat of learning then and great fun.
No I'm not an astrologer, just thought I might throw that in from Yahoo homepage.
Why O-hai-O? Are you there?
16 - Cindy D
NO WAY!!!! you took classes with Chomsky?
17 - Cindy D
He's still handsome now.
18 - Cindy D
lol :-)
19 - Cindy D
you know about looks...
they depend on the person. that's what i've found.
whoever i have ever loved was always the most beautiful.
sort of like a person is something then that makes them look wonderful.
20 - Roger Nowosielski
His hair was jet black, like a shoe polish; and he'd comb it back, like Tyrone Power!
No, just sat on a couple of seminars.
21 - Cindy D
haha nah, not an astrologer. i was a card carrying skeptic. now i am a skeptic without a card. michael shermer was very disappointing when he decided capitalism is some sort of expression of evolution.
and he only though he used to believe in the supernatural
22 - Cindy D
he teaches some classes for Zcom u know. there is this seminar thing. maybe i'll do it one day
chit..know what happene to me today? an amazing thing
23 - Roger Nowosielski
Re #19,
But I grew up with an image of movie starts when there were still heroes: Gable, Power, Robert Taylor, not to mention the leading ladies. Even Bogart had charisma.
Who is Michal Shermer? NG, by the way, was a Wicca. She dropped a curse at my feet. Read all about it in my novel. But I shouldn't be telling you what's ahead. In due time.
24 - Cindy D
I just bought a book. literally on wednesday. it's called wobblies & zapatistas
it is a dialogue, between a marxist and an anarchist. andrej grubacic is one of the authors (the anarchist). so i get in my e-mail from zmag/zcom/znet the next day--they have a interview with andrej grubacic about the book. okay that's cool.
i go to the site and i see, he has a page on the site. so i befriended him and he accepted. now i can ask him direct questions. how cool is that?
25 - Cindy D
NO! a wicca? how do you imagine i am like a person that could be a wicca? lol that is hilarious