Peace Review, 2003, 15, 3, Sept, 317-322
Compares the intellectual response to the ungovernable protests
attributed to the Black Bloc against the Iraq War & the radical
protest against the Vietnam War.
While Marcuse maintained links to the Left whereas Adorno was a philosophical idealist, the Black Bloc hit-&-run tactics of disruption signal the failure
of the ordinary Left or progressive politics, including civil
disobedience, when they are not taken in conjunction with more
radical opposition. Such opposition as employed by the Black Bloc
is the starting point to escaping the trap & legacy of
philosophical idealism & pursuing true social change. Nevertheless, the controversies engendered by the Vietnam War era and anarchist thought and praxis offer a potential for a post-philosophical perspective.