Monday, June 25, 2007
Return to the Planet of the Manicheans
Chris responds to me here. I don't think I disagree with what he says in any substantial sense. I wonder if he comes a bit too close to suggesting that anti-communism per se was a Manichean mindset, but I think I'm probably misreading him there -- he's certainly right to point out that today's neocons are the inheritors not just of the paranoid postwar right, but of the Scoop Jackson school of vigorously anti-communist Democrats. Indeed, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams all worked for Jackson before joining the GOP during the Reagan administration. I still think that you can trace a distinct history of Manicheanism in American postwar foreign policy (as opposed to applying the term over-broadly), but Chris is right to observe that part of that history runs through the Democratic party.
Glenn Greenwald responds to Chris Floyd (briefly) here.
Chris responds to me here. I don't think I disagree with what he says in any substantial sense. I wonder if he comes a bit too close to suggesting that anti-communism per se was a Manichean mindset, but I think I'm probably misreading him there -- he's certainly right to point out that today's neocons are the inheritors not just of the paranoid postwar right, but of the Scoop Jackson school of vigorously anti-communist Democrats. Indeed, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams all worked for Jackson before joining the GOP during the Reagan administration. I still think that you can trace a distinct history of Manicheanism in American postwar foreign policy (as opposed to applying the term over-broadly), but Chris is right to observe that part of that history runs through the Democratic party.
Labels: Chris Floyd, Foreign Policy, Glenn Greenwald, Neoconservatives
¶ Posted by Paul Curtis 7:47 AM
Comments:
<< Home
Paul, I think you are right in saying that we don't have any substantial disagreements. I certainly don't feel that we do; we've just been discussing some slightly differing nuances of the same basic stance, I think. Thanks very much for your gracious reply to my original post, which helped me clarify my own thinking (such as it is) on these important matters.
Post a Comment
# posted by 
: 7:01 PM
: 7:01 PM
<< Home
