Ronald W. (Not M.) Dworkin: A Very American Madness

link

Note: not Ronald M. Dworkin, the legal philosopher.

(Must kinda suck to always have people pointing out that you're not the famous guy with your name.)

I found this very interesting, though I'm not sure what to make of it.

The point is basically that crazy, extreme political fads are common in America, but we're also able to withstand them.

Quoting:

From one direction, the threat that appears to come from individual progressives actually comes from impersonal forces of change, such as demographics, technology, and capitalism... [The rest of this para seems pretty weak to me.] 

From the other direction, as this essay suggests, the threat that appears to come from radical progressivism often has its roots in longstanding American craziness. What conservatives face is not some monster never before seen, nor some alien creature with mysterious powers, but a homegrown absurdity—an old wine poured into new bottles. That absurdity must be resisted and opposed in many cases, of course, but not with feelings of fear, surprise, or panic. The threat is too familiar to evoke such feelings. If anything, the threat should be resisted with a sigh (we’ve seen all this before), with a sense of humour (our craziness is a comic disease), and a shake of the head.

O.k, that could be. The madness that seized the American left over the last decade doesn't seem to be something we can/should just shrug off...

Anyway, I found the essay worth reading.