Jon Johanning wrote:
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>
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> It used to be that periodic self-criticism was regarded by radicals as a
> necessary exercise, like flushing the car's radiator once a year.
> Perhaps it would be a good habit to get back into.
>
Self-criticism within an existing and coherent left, at least roughly unified around both goals and strategy, is of course essential. So-called "criticism" of THE LEFT (which doesn't exist) is not self-criticism but selfconscious withdrawal in amused superiority to all those folk struggling in adverse circumstances to create a left in which self-criticism would be possible. It is either whining that others do not recogize the superior wisdom and moral character of the "Critic" or a gesture similar to the drawing in of the skirts of the stereotypical Victorian Woman at the presence of a streetwalker. An ideological purity grounded in the conscious moral rectitude of the "Critic."
Carrol