Replies

"I think that was really my point. As far as I know, there isn't a real Leftist alternative to FR. About the only site I know about that has halfway reasonable leftie discussions is Strauss & Howe's fourthturning.com. Even that is only palatable in small doses."

I have read much of the work on the Fourth Turning site and think as a social theory it is very interesting. I have not gotten into the discussion boards though. They seemed to be too into the details of the theory for me to get into easily. I am surprised to hear that the discussions are leftist because I thought that Strauss and Howe were somewhat conservative or at least not leftist.

Which of the discussion threads on Fourth Turning would you recommend?

Agreed about there being no alternative to FR on the left. The left fails to realize that FR cannot be duplicated just by copying the format any more that Air America can imitate Rush, Laura or Hugh. FR is an out-picturing of a greater revolution that is going on in American politics and society. Thanks to JimRob, FR came into being as a result of that revolution. That revolution is not happening on the left so they can't grow things like FR or conservative talk radio.

Mr Sol

re: the Fourth Turning site . . . I'm not sure I can recommend any threads. I go over there every now and again (mainly since 9/11). In fact, for a while they had a very interesting discussion about whether or not 9/11 was the trigger for their "Crisis" phase in their four-stroke history theory. Most of those threads are infested by liberals of the Bush-Oil-Conspiracy ilk, if I recall correctly. But there was at least some degree of fairly rational discussion. I'd comment further but Comcast (my broadband provider) doesn't seem to want to resolve the domain name for the site right now.

I think Strauss and Howe might possibly have some conservative leanings, but they don't appear to participate very much over there any more.