More like poli-stinks

[mhuzzell]

I am taking a history class about the American folk music revival. It's theoretically pretty cool. It's actually pretty theoretically barren. Yesterday's seminar discussion topic was 'The Political Left, Folksong and Social Protest in the Inter-War Period'. My initial discussion partner blethered on about how she didn't think the Communist Party was really 'as bad' as to want to 'take over' -- as though toppling capitalism were not part of their stated agenda; worse, as though toppling capitalism were a bad thing in the first place.

This pointed out, she backed up to 'well, the folk singers were not so interested / influential in the CP anyway'. Which would have been a good point for discussion, both in our pair and as a whole class -- that there were different levels of political engagement, that the Left was, as it has always been, kaleidoscopically fragmented, that despite this the Communist Party held a lot of power and influence at the time, the tensions this caused, etc. But no. Discussion was kept to the stupidest common denominator, even as we listened to 'Joe Hill' in class, and, in the back of my mind, Sarah Ogan Gunning sang "I hate the capitalist system, I'll tell you the reason why..."

So could I, come to that. Not that it has killed anyone I know personally. But it just might bring about the end of the world as we know it. Part of the project of my dissertation -- the private part, the potential outcome, for the text itself must all be critical engagement with various theories -- is to try to wrestle some kind of unity of purpose from the aforementioned kaleidoscope of 'Left-wing' politics. The hope is that impending environmental disaster can provide a sort of 'common enemy', just as fascism did in the '30s. I don't know how I expect this one to succeed, though, given the ultimate triumph of neoliberalism in that fight.

Hell, already, next week's political fight (the University Rector Election) is between a Green and a Socialist. And even though it was me who initially proposed the Socialist, to be honest I'd be just as happy with the Green -- and terrified about splitting the vote against the right-wing celebrity who is rumoured to be the other candidate. So forgive me, guys, if I withdraw a little bit, at least until I get my strategies and justifications sorted out. This 'us-vs.-them' attitude is killing us; it's killing me, anyway.

P.S. The Daily Show gets its claws out! Brief review on What I Think About Stuff

Comments

[faron-amarth.livejournal.com]

give me a fucking break. from this side for the pond i say THERE IS NO LEFT IN AMERICA ANYMORE. My parent's generation is for the most part either cynically withdrawn or disproportionately self-congratulatory about their struggles, when in actuality they've just had the idealism beaten out of them. Sometimes if feel like all i hear from my elders are pleas for caution when we need a call to arms

"the energies of the movement had long since been aggressively dissipated by the rush to self preservation."

--hunter s. thompson

[mhuzzell.livejournal.com]

So, I was going to pull up some links to the RNC (and attendant riots), with some sort of 'Oh, isn't there?' smug message to go with them ... but in the process of trying to find something appropriate, I've just gotten depressed, as I always do when reading news reports of clashes between protesters and police.

Anyway, the point is that there is still something of a Left (even a radical Left) in the US. It's just that it's a lot less visible than in Europe, and the police are a little more brutal than in the UK. But trust me, the same mis-reporting and crap goes on here! It is an uphill struggle, always. Damn it.