The people have spoken,” said James A. Baker the Third, after George Bush’s dubious Florida victory (of .009 percent) was certified (by his campaign co-chair there). Not mentioned: Al Gore’s 325,000 national plurality. Can one express more contempt of democratic …
When Americans tune inward, what do they hear in “globalizing” times? All too often that “the market” is the solution—whatever the trouble. It’s reminiscent of bad Marxism. Remember the advanced theorists who insisted: nationalize the means of production, all problems …
Our country lacks critical culture today, brooks little questioning of “how human beings should live and what our life means.” So argues Marshall Berman in his remarks opening the symposium in this issue. We need, he proposes, some “jaytalking.” But …
Ten years ago I was quite unsure as to what would happen in the communist bloc. I certainly did not predict how vast the transformation would be. I did believe that it was a moment of contingencies and possibilities. I …
Figures emerge from the thick of it. That is what I see in David Stern’s art—and that is why I think of him as a painter not just for the end of the twentieth century, but for the beginning of …
Bruce Ackerman and I are both passionate about opera; we both have egalitarian commitments. We both, I suppose, are “secular humanists.” We both would separate religion and state. And we diverge—markedly. Is it because Bruce Ackerman is a “liberal” and …
“Please leave your threat after you hear the beep.” This was the message on Slobodan Milosevic’s answering machine as rendered by a French cartoonist back when Bosnia was being “ethnically cleansed.” The sorry point of this witticism finally became moot …
This issue marks forty-five years of Dissent. It is easy to imagine that our founders would have been a bit surprised if told back in 1954 that this magazine would still be a vigorous venture at the century’s close. After …
I find the word “recuse” poignant. It seems weighty, official–perspicacious rather than apologetic. “Excuse me” sounds as if there is something to be pardoned, even if that is not necessarily so. A little like pleading the Fifth Amendment. But if …
Jeffrey C. Isaac is a generous and provocative critic, yet I fear our disagreement may perplex some readers. He is right when he says that I still identify myself as “left” because of values—most simply, liberty, equality, solidarity. Where he …
Should “Americanization” take place by consent of the governed? The question was posed eight decades ago by a rebellious intellectual, Randolph Bourne. He was responding to polemics—both political and cultural—about “hyphenated-Americanism,” roused by immigration but more broadly by a changing …
Dissent begins the new year—and moves toward the new millennium—with a new look. It is our second “make-over” in forty-four years. We think it is fresh and attractive, and we hope our readers agree. In Dissent’s first issue, its founders …
This issue of Dissent continues our reconsideration of what it means to be “left,” with contributions by Anne Phillips and Amos Oz. Both pose sharp questions and recognize that these are difficult times for defining the left. Still, they uphold …
Should the word “left” matter any more? Identify with it nowadays and the reaction is apt to be a perplexed, crinkled nose. As if to say, “The word’s in bad odor, why use it? In any event, you’ll be taken …
