Our political environment is based on weaponized misunderstandings and advantageous illusions. It's time we disabuse ourselves of these lies and create something better.
Having recently returned from a cruise of the Greek Isles (for our 40th anniversary), I can attest to the power of myth in the affairs of humankind. However, I am a bit reluctant to sign-on to an interpretation of our times that, essentially, defines our time as one of pure mythological illusion. My sense is that we liberal -- even leftist -- elites have seriously fallen short, not simply because other, more clever or powerful elites suppressed us, but because we simply and seriously were co-opted and lost our way.
Perhaps neither Marx nor Engels, nor others of their ilk, could have anticipate how powerful is the appeal of late-stage capitalist privilege and how thoroughly seductive it is to find oneself and one’s family on the gravy train of late-stage/finance capital privilege. There is such an abundance of wealth and privilege accessible to an elite, intellectual class, that one is effectively corrupted and “bought-off” before one can say “Oh, right, about the working class and the masses of people people left behind.”
I have the sense that capitalist “democracy” in American is going to get its ass kicked over the next few election cycles, and I’m not confident that there’s much we can do about that. The issue is how to create a path forward for “the people” that is not simply about trying to revitalize neoliberal globalization, but about “centering” the working class in a way that builds back an appreciation for what liberal democracy can do for us, including teaching us about the potential of an even more substantive form of democracy that doesn’t simply “share the wealth,” but embraces the remarkable track-record we have created so far in America, of being a model of how a world of differences and heritages, etc., can be accommodated under the banner of e pluribus unum.
I think the biggest and most troubling question is: where is the leadership for this? And why isn’t there a whole cadre of leaders on “the left” working to articulate a compelling inclusive and pluralistic American track-record of worker solidarity that has proved wondrously powerful and that can address the many deficits of capitalist democracy now and going forward.
The way I know that the Democratic Party is moving leftward — just a bit, but definitely moving — is that Joe Biden has spent his career sitting smack in the middle of the party on most issues, and is now edging leftward on issues like cannabis and student loans. It's nowhere near enough, and it's not clear to me at this point that we can overcome the hypercapitalist system through ordinary electoral politics. I think we may be beyond the point of reform.
Which means some sort of revolution, which will cause a lot of grief and may well go in the wrong direction. I'm not optimistic like my pinko socialist grandpa.
True, and it's important to note that movement so we can recognize all the work that went into making it happen. I think of the student-debt activists who first had to overcome the shame that our society puts on all non-wealthy indebted people, and then had to raise the issue in public awareness to the point where it could be discussed in a presidential campaign and become a campaign promise.
I'd bet all of those activists are disappointed at the limited nature of what Biden has done, but we need to mark the accomplishment nonetheless, because it's THEIR accomplishment, not something that was just given to us by Grandpa Joe.
Phil Knight, aka "The Oligarch of Oregon". I live in a red county in Oregon, and while my friends and I are busy volunteering for Tina Kotek, the Democratic candidate for Governor, the Republicans are drowning Oregonians in ads for Christina Drazen, the Republican candidate. Knight is attempting to buy the election, and, sadly, it just might work.
I wouldn't say the Democratic party is moving to the left, but I do think it's moving in the direction of improvement, because Biden's Democratic party is better than Obama's Democratic party which was better than Bill Clinton's Democratic party. But no, none of these guys is looking for a fundamental reordering of our economic system, because they're Democrats and not Marxists.
At the same time, something is pushing the Democratic party in the direction of improvement, I'd call it a growing Progressive/Liberal movement, but is that left, by your definition? Well, no, it's also not looking for a fundamental reordering of our economic system, because it's Progressive/Liberal and not Marxist.
Having recently returned from a cruise of the Greek Isles (for our 40th anniversary), I can attest to the power of myth in the affairs of humankind. However, I am a bit reluctant to sign-on to an interpretation of our times that, essentially, defines our time as one of pure mythological illusion. My sense is that we liberal -- even leftist -- elites have seriously fallen short, not simply because other, more clever or powerful elites suppressed us, but because we simply and seriously were co-opted and lost our way.
Perhaps neither Marx nor Engels, nor others of their ilk, could have anticipate how powerful is the appeal of late-stage capitalist privilege and how thoroughly seductive it is to find oneself and one’s family on the gravy train of late-stage/finance capital privilege. There is such an abundance of wealth and privilege accessible to an elite, intellectual class, that one is effectively corrupted and “bought-off” before one can say “Oh, right, about the working class and the masses of people people left behind.”
I have the sense that capitalist “democracy” in American is going to get its ass kicked over the next few election cycles, and I’m not confident that there’s much we can do about that. The issue is how to create a path forward for “the people” that is not simply about trying to revitalize neoliberal globalization, but about “centering” the working class in a way that builds back an appreciation for what liberal democracy can do for us, including teaching us about the potential of an even more substantive form of democracy that doesn’t simply “share the wealth,” but embraces the remarkable track-record we have created so far in America, of being a model of how a world of differences and heritages, etc., can be accommodated under the banner of e pluribus unum.
I think the biggest and most troubling question is: where is the leadership for this? And why isn’t there a whole cadre of leaders on “the left” working to articulate a compelling inclusive and pluralistic American track-record of worker solidarity that has proved wondrously powerful and that can address the many deficits of capitalist democracy now and going forward.
The way I know that the Democratic Party is moving leftward — just a bit, but definitely moving — is that Joe Biden has spent his career sitting smack in the middle of the party on most issues, and is now edging leftward on issues like cannabis and student loans. It's nowhere near enough, and it's not clear to me at this point that we can overcome the hypercapitalist system through ordinary electoral politics. I think we may be beyond the point of reform.
Which means some sort of revolution, which will cause a lot of grief and may well go in the wrong direction. I'm not optimistic like my pinko socialist grandpa.
True, and it's important to note that movement so we can recognize all the work that went into making it happen. I think of the student-debt activists who first had to overcome the shame that our society puts on all non-wealthy indebted people, and then had to raise the issue in public awareness to the point where it could be discussed in a presidential campaign and become a campaign promise.
I'd bet all of those activists are disappointed at the limited nature of what Biden has done, but we need to mark the accomplishment nonetheless, because it's THEIR accomplishment, not something that was just given to us by Grandpa Joe.
Phil Knight, aka "The Oligarch of Oregon". I live in a red county in Oregon, and while my friends and I are busy volunteering for Tina Kotek, the Democratic candidate for Governor, the Republicans are drowning Oregonians in ads for Christina Drazen, the Republican candidate. Knight is attempting to buy the election, and, sadly, it just might work.
I wouldn't say the Democratic party is moving to the left, but I do think it's moving in the direction of improvement, because Biden's Democratic party is better than Obama's Democratic party which was better than Bill Clinton's Democratic party. But no, none of these guys is looking for a fundamental reordering of our economic system, because they're Democrats and not Marxists.
At the same time, something is pushing the Democratic party in the direction of improvement, I'd call it a growing Progressive/Liberal movement, but is that left, by your definition? Well, no, it's also not looking for a fundamental reordering of our economic system, because it's Progressive/Liberal and not Marxist.