"Post-Coke"
-- David In a message dated 8/14/2 3:51:48 PM, you wrote:
>
>>Someone else on the list made the comment that the publish-or-perish
>>system drove social scientists and other analysts to come up with a "new,
>>revolutionary" idea about class composition etc every other year whether
>>social circumstances merited this or not. This is similar to how I feel
>>about Post Left Anarchism.
>
>It's really the old capitalist model of innovation, isn't it? In order for a
>product to be marketable, it must appear to be the newest thing under the
>sun. An invention, with a patent. The problem is that ideology arises from
>historico-material conditions, not wishful thinkers.
>
>
>>Post Left Anarchy seems, to me, to be the product of a few people wanting
>>to position themselves as founders of a "seminal, new idea" and thus as
>>"important" analysts, whether or not their analysis reflects anything
>>really existing.
>
>Reminds me of the "New Democrats".
>
>> All
>>the things that are supposed to be hallmarks of "post leftism" -
>>autonomism, direct action, anti-auhtoritarianism - have been notable,
>>major strands of the left since well into the early 19th century. It has
>>existed side by side along with the auhtoritarian or statist tendencies.
>>It is not "post"-anything. The fetish for everything being "post"-this or
>>"post"-that taken to its logically absurd conclusion is exactly what
>>"post-left" anarchy is.
>
>Silly as this may seem, it reminds me of punk rock-- a perfectly dialectical
>response to the shabby commercialism that pop music had sunk to in the '
70s.
>But, the second it took off, it became commodified like everything else. A
>political ideology ought to be well-thought-out and well-contextualized
>before being dropped on the world-- otherwise it quickly loses its
integrity.
>
>Also, I think it's important to remember that political ideologies cannot
>create-- or act as a substitute for-- actual movements. After all, we're not
>talking about trends in painting, here (Fauvism and post-Fauvism)-- we're
>talking ultimately about real people acting on real things in real life.
>
>>As Sam Dolgoff, the late anarcho-syndicalist organizer stated, "the
>>principles of mutual aid, direct economic action, autonomy, federalism,
>>and class strugglr are all deeply rooted in American labor tradition."
>>This also seems to be what post-leftists say "post-leftism" is, despite
>>the fact that it's actually nothing new. By this criteria, the radical
>>labor movement of the Red Scare era is more post-leftist than anything
>>today.
>
>To be fair here, I think that the anarchist embrace of the term post-Leftism
>emerges out of very sincere-- and real-- concerns. The concerns are that so
>much of "the Left" has embraced either Social Democracy, Stalinism,
>mainstream Green politics, or Liberalism, that there is no room for
>revolution. Everyone seems to have "cast their lot" with capitalism. The
>concerns raised by "post-Leftism" are very real-- ones that leftists of all
>ilk need to come to terms with. Perhaps this is the real "common ground"
>issue that needs to be discussed-- the drifting of so much of "the Left"
>towards pro-capitalist, non-revolutionary politics.
>
>Best,
>David