Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Jonathan Lear and Andrew Sullivan

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Jonathan Lear

Understanding Shared Political Fantasies

Posted Monday, Aug. 20, 2001, at 3:49 PM ET

Dear Andrew,

Against repealing the 22nd Amendment? What's the matter with you? You don't want to have Bill Clinton to kick around any more? You political journalists tire so easily! And while we are on the subject: Do you think there is anyone who is capable of articulating what might be the ideals of the Democratic Party? Surely, simply trying to make fun of George Bush or scare voters about the environment, defense, etc., is getting a bit thin.

As for your assessment of the Middle East: At the risk of taking on the role of "Mr. Earnest," even if the situation is as bleak as you describe, there is still a question of the structuring fantasies which help to sustain it. The aim is not the impossible and ridiculous task of trying to psychoanalyze any given political leader--though, now that you mention it, I would be interested in hearing Arafat try to free-associate for five minutes to the name "Barak"--but to understand better the nature of shared political fantasies that help such destructive configurations of human beings to endure. The idea of such destructiveness occurring for its own sake I can understand--but not as an inexplicable primitive. The idea that there is no sustaining imaginative dimension is incredible to me. It may be, as you say, a Western liberal fantasy that the PLO wants its own state. (I don't pretend to know.) But then this liberal fantasy could only have grown up in ignorance of the political imagination that is operative.

Talk to you tomorrow,
Jonathan

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Jonathan Lear

Understanding Shared Political Fantasies

Posted Monday, Aug. 20, 2001, at 3:49 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Jonathan Lear is a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His most recent book is Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life. Andrew Sullivan writes daily for andrewsullivan.com, writes the "TRB" column for the New Republic, and is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post