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Monday, June 11, 2007

Richard Rorty's Last Published Words

The feisty last paragraph of Rorty's feisty last published interview, an unfinished exchange with Danny Postel all of which has been published in The Progressive:
Richard Rorty: When I heard the news about the Twin Towers my first thought was “Oh, God. Bush will use this the way Hitler used the Reichstag fire.” I have never thought of the Republicans at any time since Reagan’s election as more than greedy, unscrupulous scoundrels. In regard to the “war on terror” I have described the same trajectory as a lot of other leftists: in favor of the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and against invading Iraq. In regard to domestic policy, I am still in favor of soaking the rich and redistributing the money to the workers (though not of nationalizing the means of production). On “cultural” matters, there was a time when I had old-fogeyish doubts about gay and lesbian marriage that I no longer have. But that doesn’t seem much of shift.

1 comment:

Nato Welch said...

Mine first thought after the shock cleared was very similar:

"This is how tyrants are made."