Left Gobalization
Essay Preview: Left Gobalization
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In Achieving Our Country, Richard Rorty presents to the readers that the Left political wing has changed from the “Old Left”. He describes how the Left is trying to unite the “Old” and “New”. Richard Rorty demonstrates all the actions that the political “Left” has done and how they have made it better for the people and government. An example of speaking against causes is the Lefts view on globalization and how it is taking over America. Also, how does it affect our nation of inhabitants and are there any crimes that multinational corporations perform? Is it necessary for the government to allow globalization and does it benefit our nation or any other country?
Richard Rorty divides his book, Achieving Our Country, into three sections: American National Pride, The Eclipse of the Reformist Left, and A Cultural Left. He starts the first chapter, American National Pride, by saying an analogy; “National Pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement” (AOC3). With this analogy Rorty describes that our nation, United States, needs to be improved and that as of now it has just been left to ponder about and not to change anything. This being the outlook of the political right wing, that the nation has already been fulfilled in its need to be one nation without subdivisions of identity. While still the Lefts thought is that our nations moral identity has not been achieved. Baldwin, a writer in favor of the political left spectrum wrote:
“In short, we, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become one nation–if we are really, that is, to achieve our identity, out maturity, as men and womenIf we–and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insists on, or create, the consciousness of the others–do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world” (AOC12-13).
Just like Baldwin, there was many other Leftist who has agreed to these means of achieving our country. By definition the Left is the party of “hope” (AOC14), stating that it will do whatever it needs to accomplish a dream or a vision. And as of now the dream is an identity!
The next chapter in discussion is “The Eclipse of the Reformist Left”, were Richard Rorty is comparing the “Old”, “Reform” and the “New”. He has divided every section into the years it would have taken place and the type of political thought they would describe themselves as. Such as that the “Old Left”, very common but Rorty believes it is not an accurate term. But for others this term would represent “socialist” during the years 1945 and 1964. Richard being utterly against this term, renovated the term to be “reformist left” to cover all those Americans who, between 1900 and 1964, struggled within the framework of constitutional democracy to protect the weak from the strong (AOC43). That would include all the people who consider themselves “communists” and “socialist”.
Another term that Richard uses is the “New Left” this he considers it to be people mainly college student after 1964, who no longer can stand to work for social justice within the system. The New Left tends to refer to the radical left-wing movement from the 1960s and on, who claimed to be breaking with some institutions and traditions on the left. Where earlier left wing movements were generally rooted in labor activism, the New Left gradually changed and reformed it into a broader definition of political activism, commonly called social activism. This detailing that the New Left is working for society as a whole rather than just the labor force.
Many of the writers who Rorty presents are close friends with him or are influential writers who are looked at by the public eye. Such writers are Walt Whitman and John Dewey. These writers were post moderns meaning they believe that people should have hope in the changing government. Also, that with democracy comes an ever-changing in ideas, beliefs, rights, policies, and laws.
“They claim to reject attempts at universal explanatory theories such as Marxism, deriding them as “grand narratives”. It tends to embrace culture and ideology as the battle grounds for change rejecting traditional ways of organizing such as political parties and trade unions, instead it focuses on critiquing or deconstructing existing societies” (W).
In my opinion, the government is continuing to change and evolve within the nation and its people. The fact is that our founding fathers lead our nation a certain distance but we must now go fourth and work the government in favor of the people; thus creating a strong identity and a powerful government. We can no longer except theories but instead start excepting reality and things that are in fact working for the government.
The last chapter in Richard Rorty book is, “A Cultural Left”. Richard begins this section with a very controversial thought, Rorty say:
“The Reformist American Left of the first two-thirds of the century accomplished a lot. But most of the direct beneficiaries of its initiatives were white males. After women won the right to vote, the male reformers pretty much forgot about them forty years” (AOC75).
The reason why this is questionable is because, I feel that our country has not stopped progressing after womens rights. In fact it was because of womens rights that all other things like slavery were then removed. For many feminist writers like, Toni Morrison, believe that women were the gateway to freedom and the change in government. Richard makes it seem that the government and the men were so ashamed that they decline to pass any more laws. Though I would agree that the government and men who run it were ashamed but, that didnt stop the citizens from uprising over the government and making them change their ways.
In this new cultural left, they have changed the thoughts of all others and the way citizens view them throughout the sixties. The main view of the left political spectrum is that they want all the people to be equal in wealth, thus not believing in capitalism. Richard Rorty says that the “New Left” has taken away the notion that they are selfish he states:
“The heirs of the New Left of the Sixties have created, within the academy, a cultural Left. Many members of this Left specialize in what they call the “politics of difference” or “of identity” or “of recognition.”