**Reformist consciousness was famously described by Gramsci as “dual” or “contradictory”; on the one hand accepting the permanence of the system, on the other rejecting the effect of its operation. The most basic expression of…
Posts tagged patriotism
What Is American Education?
Today, though it is certainly by now an “old” debate, our Sunday paper has an “opinion” piece about Common Core State Standards. The Errant has posted before on this (here, and here–the collusion of “divergent”…
On Hitchens-ism: When Good is Bad; The Humanitarian Screen for War.
I cannot improve on Greenwald’s discussion of the way the death of Christopher Hitchens has exposed a cadre of influential writers who provided “material support” for the invasion, destruction and occupation of Iraq as not…
Patriot’s Pen: VFW Asks “Is There Pride in Serving in the Armed Forces?”
I thought about writing an essay in response to this question posed by the VFW in their “Patriot’s Pen” contest. I thought about sending in my Daughters of the American Revolution essay from when I was…
Tyranny at Home, Death Abroad: The Real Legacy of 9/11
What’s hard about yesterday, about honoring tragic events, is that it must necessarily be conducted only on a symbolic level. These are memorials. As such they are at best expressions of real, local grief and…