Roger writes: "I grew up in suburban Greenwich, CT, and have been living in New York City and writing poetry for close to six years. Although life as a graduate student in psychology keeps me busy, I've managed to be featured at a couple of small readings, and my work has apperared in "Poems that Thump in the Dark" and "In Your Face." At various times I've regarded myself as a punk nerd intellectual, a post- cynical humanist, a post-humanist cynic, and a lapsed Pagan.

ROGER GINER-SOROLLA Subject: Re: gramsci and limbaugh

Talking about the "left appropriating from the right" assumes a bipolar political continuum, when actually there are two axes (maybe more) that dominate Western 20th century politics. These axes are the extent to which you value EQUALITY, and the extent to which you value FREEDOM. (Social psychologist Milton Rokeach first made this observation.) This can help us understand why people on the "right" often quarrel. All put a low value on equality relative to other values, unlike leftists who believe that equality should be promoted even at the expense of having a big government, etc. But as for FREEDOM, there are libertarian rightists of the Bill Buckley variety who value it highly, and traditionalist rightists like Buchanan, Falwell and Limbaugh who think that things like family values. public morality, etc. should outweigh freedom. Democratic socialists and liberals value BOTH freedom and equality, which is why they are often caught dithering on policy, at least relative to Communists (who will step on freedoms to ensure equality -- at least in theory). Ironically, Limbaugh's stance on freedom (if I read him correctly) is split. He is a free-marketeer, but a moral traditionalist. Now things get complex as we have to consider economic and social policy independently.. The "traditionalist" or "communitarian" left, as represented by unions, grassroots organizers, and among others _Tikkun_ magazine, generally emphasizes economic equality over economic liberty, and social cohesion over social liberty (though on this latter point there is much debate, and certainly this bloc values political liberties much more than do, say, Leninists.) Perhaps they could call Limbaugh's bluff by arguing that economic liberty is corrosive to social cohesion? Because they've always emphasized bread & butter issues, these groups on the left are best able to play the "traditionalist" card. This is not to say that cultural libertines are necessarily evil -- just that the prospect of gay parents, blue TV, legalized drugs, and so forth are threatening to the rules by which a lot of people have organized their lives. All the same, Ithink leftists should study rightwing thought but be careful in the premises they accept. All good political writers are adept at setting premises and marshalling connotations. Rush would have us believe that non- traditional families, moral relativism, etc. are weird European imports when actually there's a strong libertarian streak in American ideology that you don't come close to seeing in Europe. Then, the solution becomes to stick to what you believe in, but frame it in down-home American terms. I think a recently issued book's title sums up this strategy of promoting cultural liberty/tolerance: "Aint' Nobody's Business What You Do." Sounds a lot more palatable that "All power to the Relativist Cadre!"

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