[This] left is a vulnerable target [because it is] extraordinarily self-obsessed and ingrown, as well as absurdly over-philosophized. It takes seriously Paul de Man's weird suggestion that 'one can approach the problems of ideology and by extension the problems of politics only on the basis of critical-linguistic analysis.' It seems to accept Hillis Miller's fantastic claim that 'the millennium [of universal peace and justice among men] would come if all men and women became good readers in de Man's sense.' When asked for a utopian sketch of our country's future, the new leftists reply along the lines of one of Foucault's most fatuous remarks. When asked why he never sketched a utopia, Foucault said 'I think that to imagine another system is to extend our participation in the present system.' De Man and Foucault were (and Miller is) a lot better than these unfortunate remarks would suggest, but some of their followers are a lot worse. This over-philosophized and self-obsessed left is the mirror image of the over-philosophized and self-obsessed Straussians. The contempt of both groups for contemporary American society is so great that both have rendered themselves impotent when it comes to national, state or local politics. This means that they get to spend all their energy on academic politics.