poetics.info

Ok, as one of my friends recently pointed out, a serious time lapse has occurred on my blog. I feel bad about that, but it is what it is. I could rattle off a whole litany of excuses. I actually think I have some pretty good ones like I started a new relationship, I had a serious medical condition, I just couldn’t bring myself to blog about Hillary…

In truth, the Obama-Marcuse essay turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be. It’s only about 80% done at this point, and I still have a lot of research and thinking left to do on it. But I have not forgotten it, and I chip away at it each week a little more. I expect to post the final essay by the end of next week.

It is amazing when you start researching a modern philosopher like Marcuse (whose dates are 1878 to 1979); you realize just how much one person’s ideas can and do permeate and shape a subculture or a movement. Marcuse really is the father of the New Left, and his ideas, which are anti-capitalist, anti-affluence and pro-socialism, form the basis of the hardcore Leftist movement in the U.S. and around the world. This 1970 Playboy article by Michael Horowitz entitled “Portrait of the Marxist as an Old Trouper” is a good introduction for anyone not familiar with his ideas. My essay will try to show how the New Left today, as exemplified by Obama, is still holding onto Marcuse’s tired, old ideas.