All the Sad Young Hegelians

At least when they read this:

Not to play up neocon/Marxist consonance more than absolutely necessary[...]

Like Francis Fukuyama, I always thought of the necons as more Leninist than Marxist. Somewhere, a lonely analytical Marxist in a Cultural Studies department shakes his head in disgust.

On Modernity

I don't understand why artists disdain modernity so much, especially given that quite a few of them subscribe to some form of economic or material determinism.  Shouldn't modernity provide better standards of living for the least well-off?  No, no--of course not.  Modernity takes their resources and yolks them to an oppressive system.  Perhaps we should all be yeoman farmers.

Some of this makes sense if you're a traditionalist or have strong desire for a clearly defined moral order.  So an aversion to modernity makes sense if you're T.S. Eliot (I think--I have yet to read his Christianity and Culture).  You want to keep the insititutions and cultural norms that preserve the status-quo.