On Wednesday, Pancake is still in Luxembourg. Serge and Pierrette come for lunch bringing everything with them. I am impressed and pleased by the simplicity of their typical meal, an unvarnished puréed cod dish, baguette, cheese eaten with bread and with simple leaves of lettuce unsalted and fresh strawberries unsweetened. We talk for quite a while in French. I ask about Serge’s family and about Pierrette’s philosophy and experience teaching. I ask them about French schools and am disappointed when they reply that they are abîmé. I was hoping to hang on to my admiration. After our long lunch conversation, we decide to go for a walk to the nearby Montmartre cemetery where many of the cultural greats are buried. It’s far for me, but I want to do it. When we make it back to the front door of the house, I collapse upon entering the hallway. Serge pulls me up but I sink again on the stairway and have to climb backwards on my rear. At the top, I still can’t stand and have to enter the apartment on my knees. I make a joke about imitating the pilgrims of Sacré Coeur and I assure Serge and Pierrette that I’m in no pain and that the walk did me good. Which is true. I slept well after the exercise.
Before I go to sleep, Pancake arrives back from Luxembourg and tells me about his thesis defense. It went well enough, though his thesis supervisor wrote a cutting remark that ruined his satisfaction, but added no criticism or information. As always, we talk about the failures of the Left and what it might take for a real socialist opposition. I’m in favor of abolishing all taboos and defying cancel culture which I believe exists, though Pancake thinks it’s exaggerated. I’m convinced that any organization that calls itself socialist should proclaim and actively pursue goals of deprivatizing the financial sector, insurance companies, medical care, Silicon Valley, including the social media, and the pharmaceutical industry. The argument in favor of these deprivatizations is practical. Banks that are “too big to fail” and thus need bailouts can’t be left in private hands. Pharmaceutical research and the internet are founded upon social achievements that justify and call for public control. The same rationale can be applied to all industry, but the insurance companies are the most egregious example of a sector that absorbs vast resources without any value added. The idea that their competition lowers costs or stimulates progress is absurd. Socialism has to provide meaningful employment for all. Collaborative work is what stitches the social fabric together. Most people want to work for that reason. Not all of this was said in our most recent conversation: we’ve been having these conversations for a long time.
So what is to be done?
Before the advent of socialism, the collective work of the socialist lies in advancing the cause. All this should override the “grievance particularism” of what passes for today’s left opposition, which is little more than jockeying for every group’s fair share of what I call the shit pie. It’s that and our triumphalist war on words. Recently, I argued with respect to my experience of 1968 that, before the social media, crowds were mobilized and people politicized by the simultaneous or near simultaneous reception of news, speeches, or mass appeals. This is attested to by reports and photos of speakers addressing avid crowds. It’s hard to imagine the history of the oppositional Left without such scenes. It’s hard to imagine such events happening today. Why not? Because of the massive atomizing effect of the social media which generate endless quarrels and cancellations among the leftists themselves, but rarely contribute to a movement. The George Floyd protests were a possible exception. Could the Pinkertons and Cossacks have done more to derail and splinter the opposition than Twitter today? No one on the Left loved Cossacks or police agents, but few leftists are willing to give up Twitter’s ersatz politics. Few are ready to forego Twitter. The twenty-first-century phenomenon of news and commentary as humor draws upon and feeds into the Twitterization of political life by reducing it to memes and clever sound bites, to a surrogate struggle and opposition. As far as I can tell, Twitter doesn’t even contribute much to serious debate or persuasion. I will admit that my knowledge is second-hand and limited.
Pancake and I argue further on the subject. He reminds me of an open letter he and I wrote criticizing the Attention Deficit Disorder of a DSA that always jumps to the “next big thing,” forgetting about its previous priorities, such as the Medicare4All campaign. Upon reflection, I agree that steadfast goals are needed, but I argue that DSA should always admit and highlight authentically socialist objectives.
One thing is certain: the conditions and tenor of opposition do change. Between my stay in Hamburg in 1968 and West Berlin in 1972-73, the German left was transformed. The former time was the rapidly spreading antiauthoritarian phase in which minds were changing and masses mobilizing. The latter in the 1970s was partisanly organized and doctrinaire in Germany, and specific (feminist, gay, etc.) and reformist in the US. Anyone who doubts the rapidity of change in revolutionary movements should compare 1788 to 1792 or 1847 to 1851, periods of comparable duration but worlds apart. Moreover, it cannot be the case that political evolution is invariably negative. The status quo is far too wretched, the gap between productivity and distribution, material wealth and cultural poverty too great and fast growing, the ecological threat too grim. Socialists should spotlight the untenability of the status quo.
Signed,
Andrew (Weeks)
Normal Thoughts 