James Devine wrote:
"BTW, I don't think the left/right spectrum is useful except in the most superficial political analysis."
Jim's labelling as "sectarian" careless use of either "ultra-left" or "the left/right spectrum" is pretty accurate. There is one (mostly past) verbal definition and expansion of the terms "left opportunism" (ultraleftism) and "right opportunism," that if -- I know: a VERY big if -- the definitions are accepted by all in a discussion, can be illuminating, but only as stating a proposition to be explored, not as a flat (and in the case of Max's use this time, stupidly provocative) and final judgment. This definition of left-opportunism is any political position grounded in an over-estimation of the strength of the capitalist class and/or underestimation of the strength of the working class. (In *merely* antiquarian consideration of various 17th & 18th c. English writers I have found this to be a useful metaphor with which to approach those writers.) The virtue of the definition is that it forces (or at least should force) a focus on the actual principles involved in any political course rather stupid dogmatic diktat's such as Max's in this thread.
In this framework, the judgment of Hitchens, Doug, my position as "ultra-leftism" would have, developed in detail, to assert something like the following:
They (ultra-lefts -- say Doug) has such an overwhelming conviction of
the absolute power of the Capitalist Class over its agent, the
Democratic Party, that he is unable to see that in fact that grip is so
insecure, and the strength of the working class so great that that
servant (the D.P) can easily be wrenched from the hands of the
Capitalists and Imperialists and made to serve the interest of the
working class. Hence Doug, in pathetic fear, can only urge the class to
draw in its skirts and avoid contagion from that (fantasy of)
overwhelming strenth of the capitalist contagion which the D.P. spreads
on all workers who dare to touch it. Something like that.
Interestingly enough, I think if pursued this perspective would suggest that in the quarrel between Doug and Lou P over the possibilities of revolution, Doug also comes out as ultra-left, in his overestimation of the power of capital. :-)
Have fun.
Carrol
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