Give the guy some credit, please. He was thrown out of France for
his activism--yes, activism (as in praxis, practice, etc.);
he is, in fact, still active--did anyone see the recent story in the
paper? He's back in France, as a rep. of the Greens. I think it's a great
story.
I think some of us need to brush up on our history of the New Left; the
Yuppies were performers, political performers. And Rubin and Hoffman were
different; certainly Cohn-Bendit and Rubin were different. I'm sorry some
of them sold out, but you know what? They (the "Big Men") of the movement
were not responsible for the movement. They became some of the faces of it
that the media enjoyed following; they knew that, and enjoyed it as much
as anyone. And true, Hoffman never sold out. Now for Jane Fonda: "Hanoi
Jane," remember? She may be rich and selling videos, but she really
couldn't spend the rest of her life visiting Hanoi, could she? Her
support of the North Vietnamese brought her the undying hatred of many,
and helped the anti-war movement understand itself.
It's also interesting to me that her husband, Ted Turner, gave a Billion
bucks to charity last year. And dared other billionaires to follow.
I found the attack on these New Left figures unsettling; it struck me as
simply a cynical sell-out of the whole movement. Each was
different. Perhaps some need to rethink how they are doing the HISTORY of
the left. Foucault provides some good ideas, if we'd reflect on them.
Jo-Ann Pilardi