>>Perhaps the place to begin is with a practical, leftist
>>vision of how things might be?
>
>You seem to think that that's straightforward, almost self-evident. It's
>not. Lots of very smart and dedicated people have spent their lives trying
>to figure it out, and how to do something about it. We're going up against
>very formidable institutionalized power, power that works in some large
>part because it's programmed into our heads.
I'm sorry if I've given the impression that I think the task of building socialism trivial. I don't. I'm well aware that our entire culture is steeped in the mythos of Unfettered Capitalism. I feel quite sure Chomsky is right on the money when he talks about how it will be a *long hard dangerous slog*. I've few illusions about that.
What I do think trivial is the problem of *making a start*.
Rather than endlessly ruminating over what Bezumnetskij wrote to Votscha-Doingier, let's critique the Labor Party's platform. Is a Constitutional guarantee of a $10/hr job a good idea? If not, what should happen instead. Or let's talk about what happened to the promise of the kibbutzim. Where did they go wrong, if they did go wrong, and what ought to have done instead. Or let's talk about what will awaken all the folk who are enchanted --literally, I have to think-- by the hallucinatory promise of wealth-thru-Capitalism. To me, Capitalism's promises tap into *exactly* the same soft spots in our heads as the lottery and, more generally, the 'gambler's fallacy'. How do we bust that bubble?
>Practical types like to make
>fun of theorists, and sometimes the theorists deserve it, but one reason
>people do theory is to figure out just why the status quo has its staying
>power.
Perhaps the main reason the status quo has its staying power is that we haven't even *defined* an alternative, eh? Much less gone about beating the drum for it. Eh? Wotcher think?
As to theorising: one of the characteristics of a certain kind of psychotherapy is that it allows a neurotic client to endlessly 'make progress' without having to make actual changes. The client is encouraged to gain vast amounts of insight into the causes of his/her maladaptive responses without having to put it to any practical use in daily life. It's a great way for the therapist to afford a nice car, holiday house, put the kids thru Harvard, so forth...but it's nowhere near so helpful to the client or the client's interactors.
Goal-less political theorising reminds me of that. Endless truth, no consequences.
Taking the first step toward creating a vision of socialism doesn't guarantee success. But it changes the odds. So long as we don't take that first step, we are guaranteed *never* to have socialism.