Thursday, March 15, 2007

Who's right about the left? (Peter Duncombe maybe?)

What do Paris Hilton, Grand Theft Auto, Las Vegas and a McDonalds commercial have in common with progressive politics? Not much, you think. And you're absolutely right.
Ay, there's the rub. At least according to American professor Stephen Duncombe. In his new book Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in the Age of Fantasy he holds a passionate plea for more imagination in current left-wing politics.

Up to now leftwing politics got obsessed with reason. Why? Probably because Enlightened America believed it was the propper thing to do. But the means of reason are also available to conservatives and right-wing politicians. And apparantly they aren't doing such a bad job using them. If left wants to come up with an answer, they have to use their imagination again and start incorporating it into their political vision. This TED-talk by Sir Ken Robinson might be a good start. And the book by Duncombe as well of course. (website, forum).

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