> It's a problem that we can't talk about capitalism and socialism. But
> the
> reason we can't is not timidity or "betrayal" by "bureaucrats" or some
> other
> myth of bad motivations that left-adventurists always love to
> attribute to
> people who are better organizers than they are. The real reason that we
> can't use words like that is that there's virtually no one left in this
> country who has any interpretive framework to evaluate those terms or
> understand what they mean. That framework needs to be built through
> education, but political education needs to actually put workers into
> struggle.
I think that we probably need a completely new vocabulary, not using traditional terms like "socialism" and "communism," if we want most Americans to understand us at this point. I don't mind calling myself a socialist, in the sense that a lot of my ideas are derived from ones that traditionally were called "socialist," but I don't expect people who don't have a substantial knowledge of that tradition to understand what I'm talking about.
It's just like using technical scientific terms when speaking to a lay audience. Would you expect any random person on the street to understand you if you launched into a speech about "electron shells" and "bosons"? Of course, actual struggle is the start of political education, but we need to realize that a lot of struggles being waged these days are quite different from the ones of a century or more ago, where the traditional language leftists still use arose. And we must face the fact that most Americans hate nothing more than having to study history. We probably need to develop a language out of Jon Stewart and hip-hop, etc., that is, where people's minds are actually at today.
> but the organizers of this
> demonstration wanted to have a catch-all rally in Washington instead,
> with
> lots of fiery speakers, but no concrete task to accomplish. Maybe that
> makes
> some people feel good; I just find it tedious. It's the kind of thing
> that
> only the faithful can get behind -- and then only when the faithful are
> interested primarily in hanging out with one another instead of
> talking to
> the rest of the country and trying to move masses of people in a more
> radical direction.
No question that a lot of radicals, for quite some time now, have had a proclivity towards huddling together with like-minded comrades, using certain terms as shibboleths to make sure they are among friends. It's been a really hostile environment for radical leftists for a generation or more. I don't want to be too hard on them. But I think it's time to crawl out of our shelters and try to engage the general public -- as long as we try to speak a language they can understand!
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax