The Importance of Being Militant The Days of Rage and Their Critics

• Published in: Bringing the War Home p. 74
• Main Author: Varon, Jeremy Peter
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States University of California Press 31-03-2004
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Anger; Axiology; Behavioral sciences; Cognitive psychology; Courage; Emotion; Emotional states; Ethics; European history; European history: postwar, from c 1945; Government; Government services; History of the Americas; Human behavior; International politics; International relations; Law enforcement; Left wing politics; Morality; New Left; Normative ethics; Personality; Personality psychology; Personality traits; Philosophy; Police; Political activism; Political change; Political ideologies; Political movements; Political philosophy; Political processes; Political protests; Political revolutions; Political science; Political sociology; Political spectrum; Political violence; Politics; Psychology; Violence
• ISBN: 9780520230323; 0520230329; 9780520241190; 0520241193

Until the Days of Rage, Weatherman existed primarily as an analysis, an impulse, a promise, and a threat. The group proclaimed action to be the great catalyst—the agony of the New Left and the riddle of imperialism solved. Violent confrontation in Chicago would overcome demoralization within the movement, greatly expand its base of support, and, most ambitiously, spark a second American revolution. With this exhortation to militancy, conveyed with a mix of heartfelt conviction and thuggish righteousness, Weatherman had aroused the curiosity, suspicion, and fear of the left and of those few within the mainstream conscious of its voice.