QUOTE: Todd Gitlin, on pro-war sentiments:
"If the juxtaposition of these two elements -- snarling resentment coupled with giddy expectations -- sounds familiar, that's because it fits snugly into the millenarian tradition. Even when the far right is not specifically Christian, much of its thinking is colored by the style of Christian millenarianism. Christian rightists ask the same question -- what is holding back the kingdom of God on Earth? -- and deliver the equivalent answer: the Antichrist, that cunning deceiver."
Unfortunately, he neglects the roots of socialism in Jewish eschatology. His point is well taken (to an extent-- he doesn't necessarily show that this sort of Manichean thought is bad, just tells us that it is), but he'd do much better with a little equal time.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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