On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> On Fri, 19 Oct 2001, Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> > Note: by Doug's logic here, an Abolitionist living in the South in the
> > early 1800s would be "evading reality". We can't judge the ultimate
> > success of a political viewpoint or strategy by how popular it is
> > today.
>
[interesting historical analysis snipped]
> Looked at this way, your example seems to suggest that resonance --
> building on truths that your audience considers self-evident -- actually
> matters quite a lot for political movements.
>
> Michael
>
Your knowledge of U. S. history is obviously far more detailed than mine. I'd need to do a little research, but I vaguely remembered something about the contributions of a few Southerners to the Abolition movement.
This "resonance" thing is just too Realpolitik for me. If we only advocate political positions that "resonate" with the general population, we risk reproducing the ways of thinking and the social relations we're trying to transform. And yes, I appreciate the dilemma here: nothing is more painful than a full-on uninhibited anarcho-communist ranting at a party to people who wish the pinko would just fade away.
But look at it this way: imagine I'm a Southerner who thinks slavery is wrong. I could say, "It's wrong, and I'm going to try to do political work to remove this injustice". Or I could say, "Most people around here would ignore me, my view is unpopular, I'll just stay quiet."
The thing is, we never know the future beforehand! Look at the strange political and social developments of the past few thousand years, just a small fraction of human history: How can we say with any confidence what the effectiveness of any political strategy will be in the future? Hell, for all we know, the black shirts will triumph, we'll be living in egalitarian anarchist communities, and capitalism will be just as silly as Aristotle insisting that any democratic society must have slaves to do the manual labor.
Or not. But if we make sure our political strategies fit some constrained barriers of resonance, then our own pessimism will help to create a future that is also constrained by these same barriers.
Miles