Charles
>>> Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> 05/28 8:34 PM >>>
Carrol Cox replies to Dan Lazare:
>I think it should be obvious that any assertion as to the
>> irrelevancy of the left in this country IS right-wing. Numerically, we're
>> pretty small, admitted, but, ideologically, I would think our message is as
>> important, and as relevant, as ever. Indeed, the first seems to make the
>> second more important than ever.
>Leftist self-hate is an old rhyme in the U.S. and perhaps elsewhere. I
>think it amounts to apologizing for being a leftist, "See, I'm a real
>person, not like all those other freaks you see around me." And indeed,
>"the first seems to make the second more important than ever." An
>intellectual error that leads to this self-contempt (or at least seems to
>undergird its logic) is the assumption that all defeats come from errors
>or crimes or betrayals. As I pointed out recently in another thread on
>another list, this is the logic which sometimes led monarchs to execute
>defeated generals, regardless of circumstances. Not just often, but
>usually, defeats come from the strength of the enemy, not the internal
>weakness of the defeated. I believe Sweezy years ago developed this point
>in some detail, arguing that the weakness of the U.S. working class flowed
>from the tremendous strength of the U.S. capitalist class.
>
>It was this empty sneer at leftists for being weak that set my teeth on
>edge when I read Moore's *Nation* article. I'll have to buy the videos of
>his movies and get the bad taste out of my mouth.
I agree with both Carrol and Dan here. The earlier 'humorless leftists' thread made me think of the same thing. I hate to use a very inadequate term, but it seems that self-hate is a result of 'internalization' of what the ruling ideology says about the Left: repression and marginalization leading to a self-deprecating apology for our very existence! I think this is truly defeatist, and this structure of feelings get us nowhere. Regarding Moore's films, I think that one of the reasons why Moore's 'humor' so resonates with many on this list is that it reinforces the aforesaid structure of feelings.
Yoshie
P.S. The entire thing reminds me of female stand-up comics' tendency to eschew agression directed toward the outside (including the audience) and to use self-deprecating comments (especially about their own bodies: too fat, too ugly, etc.) instead. Very different from strategies of most male comedians.