Funferal

Gitlin and activism

George Monbiot and Todd Gitlin recently took part in an interesting debate about activism on OpenDemocracy.net. I recently picked up a copy of Gitlin’s Letters to a Young Activist and look forward to reading it – particularly comparing it to Hitchen’s Letters to a Young Contrarian in the same series. Gitlin treads a fine line between practicality and principle, whereas Hitchins, as the title implies, privileges “argument … for its own sake.” Undoubtedly the case can be made – and Hitchens does quite eloquently – but Hitchens often revels in unpopularity, confusing this with an affirmation that one is ‘speaking truth to power.’