Comments on: What the fuck, John Milbank? http://codepoetics.com/poetix/2008/05/22/what-the-fuck-john-milbank/ mocking the ways of true grown men Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:10:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jeff Rubard http://codepoetics.com/poetix/2008/05/22/what-the-fuck-john-milbank/comment-page-1/#comment-31421 Jeff Rubard Fri, 23 May 2008 04:02:42 +0000 http://codepoetics.com/poetix/?p=549#comment-31421 "Red Tory" is a great term of oppobrium; my first opportunity to use it was discussing Rorty a decade ago, and I still want to say it often. But I think I mean something different than you; I mean precisely "the secret alliance of cultural with economic liberalism", i.e. people who sell a line of "moderate" liberalization as a bulwark against the strident masses. I initially had in mind intellectuals who, like Rorty, made a show of being "social-democrats" while going on and on about the evils of Resentment and other thoughts and sentiments typically associated with righting actual social injustice -- but aren't blogs full of Disraelis in favor of extending franchises, but not too much? As for the franchises of Biosexual Freedom and Faustian Excesses of Science, I think the question for the real "traditional socialist" is <em>market penetration</em>. I have nothing (beyond usual ceteris paribus conditions) against single mothers tying up their dates, or people (perhaps not only kids) learning about chemistry by making stuff blow up, but some conceptions of "liberality" in these matters view modern science and sophisticated sex as things which are on the universal level only suffered. So although Milbank generally seems to be operating the same con as Alasdair MacIntyre, I think bringing economic stratification back into the equation doesn't completely nullify his sentiments. “Red Tory” is a great term of oppobrium; my first opportunity to use it was discussing Rorty a decade ago, and I still want to say it often. But I think I mean something different than you; I mean precisely “the secret alliance of cultural with economic liberalism”, i.e. people who sell a line of “moderate” liberalization as a bulwark against the strident masses. I initially had in mind intellectuals who, like Rorty, made a show of being “social-democrats” while going on and on about the evils of Resentment and other thoughts and sentiments typically associated with righting actual social injustice — but aren’t blogs full of Disraelis in favor of extending franchises, but not too much?

As for the franchises of Biosexual Freedom and Faustian Excesses of Science, I think the question for the real “traditional socialist” is market penetration. I have nothing (beyond usual ceteris paribus conditions) against single mothers tying up their dates, or people (perhaps not only kids) learning about chemistry by making stuff blow up, but some conceptions of “liberality” in these matters view modern science and sophisticated sex as things which are on the universal level only suffered. So although Milbank generally seems to be operating the same con as Alasdair MacIntyre, I think bringing economic stratification back into the equation doesn’t completely nullify his sentiments.

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