The Biggest Problem With The Western Left Is That It Does Not Exist by Ms Caitlin Johnstone!
(2023-06-02 at 15:31:17 )

The Biggest Problem With The Western Left Is That It Does Not Exist by Ms Caitlin Johnstone!

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

The biggest problem with the western left is that it does not exist.

To look at leftist discourse you wouldd think the lefts biggest problem is that some leftists have the wrong beliefs about this or that issue, or that the left pays too much or not enough attention to identity politics, or places too much or not enough emphasis on electoral politics, or is too sympathetic toward enemies of the United States empire or not sympathetic enough, or that this or that faction gets it all wrong - but it is not. The biggest problem is that there are not anywhere remotely close to enough leftists to get anything done in the west today.

And by leftists I of course do not mean Democrats or "progressives" or anyone who just wants a few adjustments to be made to the capitalist empire so that they can afford medicine or a college degree or whatever. I mean real socialists, communists and anarchists who oppose capitalism and imperialism and seek the drastic, revolutionary changes this civilization urgently needs. Those who understand that the system is not broken and in need of repair, but is working exactly as intended and is in need of complete dismantling.

This latter category has barely any meaningful existence in the western world. The "western left" in modern times is either controlled opposition or what amounts to a glorified online message board. That is not our fault; the empire has poured vast amounts of wealth and effort into making that happen. But we do need to be real about it, and we do need to fix it.

And it is just so strange to me that this does not dominate all leftist discourse all the time. The fact that the western left is a tiny politically impotent minority with nowhere near the numbers needed to accomplish its goals is the single most significant thing about the western left, by a long, long way.

"Long Live the Communist International!"
CPUSA meeting celebrating Lenins birthday.
Madison Square Garden, New York, 1931.

We are sure that such meetings will be held again in the United States!-Politsturm International (PolitsturmInter) June 24, 2021

I mean, if you were a general who was setting off to war, and you only had a handful of soldiers to fight against an entire enemy nation, that would be the single most glaring fact in your attention. You would not be spending your time arguing about military strategies or the history of equestrian combat, and you certainly would not be wasting your energy fighting against those who are basically on your side. Front and center of your attention would be the fact that you do not have enough troops to fight this war, and how can you get more.

If you are an architect who has been hired to construct a skyscraper, and your workforce shows up and it is just one guy with a plastic toy hammer, that is going to be the focus of your attention. You are not going to be poring over your blueprints and books on architectural theory and musing about the finer points of foundational integrity, you are going to be trying to figure out how to get more workers to build this damn thing.

So you would think that would be the case with the western left as well, because we find ourselves in more or less the same kind of situation. But it is not. To look at the writings of a lot of western leftists you would think the best way to enact your ideology in the world is to spend your time arguing with other leftists using esoteric Marxist jargon about obscure points that nobody outside your tiny echo chamber knows about or cares about, or to sit back smugly knowing better than everyone else while waiting for the contradictions inherent in capitalism to bring about its demise.

If you look at organizing and demonstrating it is not much better. You have got sparsely attended meetings with increasingly atomized sects, antiwar protests with a handful of people and one banner, and some LARPers dressed in black punching racists and transphobes here and there to make believe they are fighting a real revolution against real power. Which is the same as nothing.

The first and foremost goal of the western left should be to create more western leftists. You do not do that by having all the correct opinions and reading all the correct books and proving yourself the most correct in argument after argument, and you do not do it by waiting for western material conditions to deteriorate like a bunch of fundamentalists awaiting the Rapture. You do it by reaching out to people, winning hearts and minds, showing them that everything they have been taught about their nation and their world is a lie, and showing them that things can be better.

I do not claim to have all the answers on how to address this dilemma, I am just highlighting a massive, glaring problem that does not get the tiniest fraction of the attention that it should get. I address this problem the best way I know how with my own work, but I am just one person with one mind. I hope to see many more minds pointed at this issue in the future, so that we can all come up with solutions and fix this thing!!

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Ah, the Buddha Ms Caitlin speaks the truth!!! - Cousin Lucky