Henri-Levi (wikipedia), in the footsteps of De Tocqueville, toured the United States in 2006 to write his book American Vertigo. As McLemee puts it, he penned a piece in ‘The Nation’ diagnosing the American left:
…as suffering from a sublime desolation. We were trapped in “a desert of sorts, a deafening silence, a cosmic ideological void.”
To his credit, he has the potential to point out problems and confront issues with moral courage:
“…for one of the two very worst forces in the world, by Lévy’s account, is anti-Americanism. The other is anti-Semitism.”
They could be quite serious. And:
“…the future menaced by the prospect of barbarism. He is right to worry. But amid his soliloquies, he makes gestures of warning in the wrong direction.”
Barbarism seems like a threat to civilized society pretty much all the time, from within and without. So where does McLemee suggest Henri-Levy is headed?
“…the legacy of antitotalitarian radicalism. He treats it almost like a family heirloom. But he avoids embracing that tradition’s hostility to capitalism.”
Related On This Site: -Was Bernhard Henri-Levy actually influencing U.S. policy decisions..the old French liberte…which was too interventionist for the current administration? From New York Magazine: ‘European Superhero Quashes Libyan Dictator’
Perhaps we simply aren’t ready for Henri-Levy’s more libertine, radical, French liberalism, which he displayed by coming over in the spirit of Tocqueville and pissing on the sides of our highways.
Antisemitism is running wild on college campuses. Obama’s stance on Israel is sending the wrong message and making things worse. Now Dear Leader thinks we can exit the region and the Arabs will play nice and take care of everything. That will not last very long.
Agreed.