Discovering Kenan Malik

Anybody who can write as profoundly as this on the decline of the British left needs to be taken seriously:

"... the Rushdie affair gave early notice of the abandonment by many sections of the left of their traditional attachment to ideas of Enlightenment rationalism and secular universalism and their growing espousal of multiculturalism, identity politics and notions of cultural authenticity".

You can read the rest of this essay here.

Comments

[Larry O'Hara]

Malik is certainly to be taken seriously--though as a former RCP member/LM contributor, the role of his own organisation in destroying the British Left is worth remembering...

[Duncan Money]

Bloody hell, a (former?) RCP'er disenchanted and critical of contemporary leftist politics?! Now there's something you don't often see...

That said, it is a very good article. Maybe it goes to show that a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[Ben]

I'm not terribly keen on claims to universalism (after all how do you know they are universal)? But certain principles seem to me, to be pretty stable and core to pleasurable social practices: such as avoidance of -- and attacking -- hierarchical coercion (from bullying through to slavery), and recognising the limits to our knowledge (so as to avoid the paternalism of the RCP's vanguardism).

[darren redstar]

I have found malik a serious and intelligent writer, discovered him last year when I was writing an essay on ideology for college- I focussed on schol meal provision and to be able to reference aquote-"jamie oliver is a tosser!" to him was a joy.