A thermidorian meditation

Abstract

Similar to other countries in different parts of the globe, America is on the threshold of change, a move to the right. According to political commentators who have spent much time discussing the issue, one of the more salient manifestations of this shift in the political climate is the so called "angry white man" and his increasing hostility to "affirmative action." The supporters of "affirmative action," mostly the American Left, have dis cussed at length the changes in attitude and provided different explanations for the phenomenon. Some say the fears of "angry white men" are unjus tified, and an effort should be made to educate them so they understand that their fears are ungrounded. Others acknowledge that "affirmative ac tion" has provided better opportunities for minorities, but they argue that America's predominantly white society has a moral obligation to compen sate minorities for centuries of repression. The argument in this case is that the hostility toward "affirmative action" on the part of "angry white men" is owing to their lack of sensitivity. Here, in their attack on "unrea sonable" and "insensitive" people, the defenders of affirmative action jux tapose the present generation to the more "sensitive" and "reasonable" previous generation. No reason is offered for why the present generation is no longer "sensitive." What strikes an observer in the midst of all this rhetoric is the lack of a Marxist approach to the problem. This is indeed surprising because of the role Marx has played in the intellectual development of the Ameri can Left. I lived in Moscow before I emigrated to the United States some time ago, and there the intellectuals of Brezhnev's era often debunked Marxism as a quasireligion imposed from above, an ideological symbol of "Big Brother." In America, however, Marxism was the beloved intellectual