The first symptom of difficulty is the narrowness with which diversity is defined. The only real plenitude that counts in this scheme is that which has an explicitly oppositional quality. Both of these groups may equally engage the individuals within them, both may represent a substantial shift in cultural categories and social rules, both may mark differences that will continually breed differences, but it is only when the group is explicitly at odds with the mainstream that it qualifies as interesting. This makes for every kind of intellectual difficulty. It means that no sooner has the Left embraced plenitude as something to be taken seriously than it forswears the better part of the phenomenon.
Intellectual difficulty begets political difficulty almost straight away.
Earnest and pragmatic, the Left is almost always the last to know. Innovations arise, blossom, put their stamp upon the world, but it is years before the Left takes notice. Restricted to political categories, wedded to fixity, it cannot glimpse the implications of plenitude s cultural developments. This is true even of those who descend from the Frankfurt school and claim to care about contemporary culture. I expect there is no one on the Left capable of giving a good account of line dancing, this despite the fact that this world is an interesting and dynamic site for the transformation of gender, class, outlook, and, yes, politics.