Details
Synopsis
A systematic approach to contemporary American politics, rooted in the traditions of both Judaism and liberalism. Lerner, the editor of the journal "Tikkun", attempts to infuse the politics of the Left with the same appeals to religion and traditional morality that have so far been seen mainly as the property of the Republicans and the Right.
| Size | | Length: | 355 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 23.2 oz |
Industry Reviews
"With his unwieldy prose and desire to cover all the bases, from the spiritual to the state referendums, Lerner may be his own worst enemy. Yet he catches something of the American mood, a dissatisfaction with leftist economism and rightist authoritarianism. Lerner has something to say. Unfortunately--or is it fortunately?--his ideas are better than his book."
Philadelphia Inquirer - Russell Jacoby (07/21/1996)
"'The Politics of Meaning' is a morally important book, and also exceptionally courageous, because of all the mockery and just plain meanness Michael Lerner has had to deal with (and may face again) as a result of what he has written here. It is, above all, Lerner's respect for what he terms 'the spiritual needs' of individuals and our society that resonates most deeply for me. Many people on the political Left satirize such sentiments, but Lerner is right to see this is perhaps the deepest of our needs at the present moment. This book has enriched my understanding of our nation, as well as of myself."
other - Jonathan Kozol
"Given his mental convolutions, it's impossible to resist applying Lerner's cherished psychologizing to Lerner himself. An analysis would go like this. The people Lerner 'treated' at his Institute for Labor and Mental Health were working-class and middle-class. That is, they were members of the 'silent majority' who had once rejected Lerner's calls for revolutionary action. So for two decades Lerner got back his own. His patients might reasonably have thought he was trying to help them; but Lerner had another agenda. He tells us that his 'aim was to better understand the psychodynamics of middle-income working people, and also to try to understand why so many of them were moving to the political Right.' And the findings of his research with the people who put themselves in his care were that they had been deformed by pain and misrecognition, maimed by the 'deprivation of meaning.' In other words, it was their fault that the revolution had failed and propelled Lerner into twenty years of oblivion, not his. They had failed him. This project of self-vindication has been at the 'meaning' core of his ambitions since before Lerner was seduced and then abandoned by the Clintons and lost the media spotlight. Now, as an indifferent society once again rejects Lerner's calls for transformation, the self-vindication remains.<BR>Let all this infuriated healing come to an end."
Atlantic Monthly - Lee Siegel (06/01/1996)
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