Re: Harrington's reactionary feminism - some thoughts

Lots of food for thought there. You may very well be right that Harrington is more concerned with appeasing the right than the left, even if she is anxious to retain the "feminist" label as well. Still, I am not sure that her actual proposals are feminist. I need to think about these issues a lot more, though. I don't recall you ever promising to read The Clash of Civilizations! (Unless I missed a post.) Now I'm quite embarrassed and hope you don't think I'm an eejit for talking it up. Although it does seem to provide a theoretical framework that, to me, explains a great many recent conflicts. It's quite a big book, I'm afraid. Actually, the last chapter, chapter 12, is the gist of it, and is really all one needs to bother with if one is put off by the rest, and it contains his recommendations for surviving this century as well, which are excellent. Although he rejects western universalism and thinks that the west must stop interfering elsewhere, he is still quite pro-West and pro-liberal in his sentiments, so he is sometimes concerned to "strengthen" the West internally. So I don't agree with those proposals where it is about strengthening the West. For example, I don't at all want to "encourage the 'Westernization' of Latin America" (p. 312 of my copy). On the contrary, I very much hope Latin America goes its own separate way and evolves its own distinctive civilisation.