Why the Left needs new words

From a review of Spies for Hire in DailyKos

You won’t read the words “ruling class” in Spies for Hire, and I’m sympathetic, because few writers who want to be taken seriously will unhesitatingly employ those words in public discourse these days. Not so much out of fear that Patrick Buchanan will redbait them as that many post-Cold War liberals will do so. But a slice of the ruling class is who Shorrock describes throughout his book.

Point well taken. Sure, there’s a ruling class, but calling them that does indeed, especially in America, tend to immediately turn people off and get you dismissed as an irrelevant Marxist. That’s why the Left needs new phrases and ways of explaining its often quite useful and on-target analysis.

1 Comment »

One Response to “Why the Left needs new words”

  1. Steve on 14 May 2008 at 2:48 pm #

    Well, it seems the republicans have no problem calling the rest of us as ‘working class’, or ‘lower class’. You know, the uneducated, unwashed masses.

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