Irving Kristol isn’t the only one? Obviously not every single Trot became a neocon, but many did, and there’s a reason for it: cynicism. Further, a Trot working for the CIA itself is actually just an extension of the same cynicism. It’s all growing from the same learned helplessness and lack of revolutionary optimism: if revolution is impossible, all you can do is get your bag.
This is not exclusive to Trots, of course. Plenty of young people with revolutionary optimism “grow up” to become cynical older adults, and that’s not because they’re chicken. They simply become convinced there’s no hope.
I don’t think neocons were ever legit. This was an attempt to infiltrate the “New York Intellectuals” and their publications, just like they did later with Ramparts Magazine
And I don’t see the cynicism in Trotsky’s writing, agree with him or not. Permanent Revolution is anything but cynical.
Irving Kristol isn’t the only one? Obviously not every single Trot became a neocon, but many did, and there’s a reason for it: cynicism. Further, a Trot working for the CIA itself is actually just an extension of the same cynicism. It’s all growing from the same learned helplessness and lack of revolutionary optimism: if revolution is impossible, all you can do is get your bag.
This is not exclusive to Trots, of course. Plenty of young people with revolutionary optimism “grow up” to become cynical older adults, and that’s not because they’re chicken. They simply become convinced there’s no hope.
My statement remains the same.
Okay, whatever.
So. Were they chicken? Because that’s the topic.
I don’t think neocons were ever legit. This was an attempt to infiltrate the “New York Intellectuals” and their publications, just like they did later with Ramparts Magazine
And I don’t see the cynicism in Trotsky’s writing, agree with him or not. Permanent Revolution is anything but cynical.
I didn’t say Trotsky himself was a cynic.
I said that Trots, and other people who formerly had revolutionary politics, became neocons out of cynicism.
Not because they’re chicken.