>This is very reasonable. But then what's the point of staying in the
>struggle? Why even be a leftist?
because you realize that things change -- just as Marvin said. Because you realize that, if you look back to the halcyon days of the labor struggle, the victories were the result of a confluence of unique events -- and that we're facing our own confluence of unique events that isn't at all conducive to the things for which we struggle.
But we keep on, not simply because it's right, but because it matters. Because the narratives, speeches, essays, polemics, marches, rallies, etc. help keep us solidaristic now -- they remind us why we're here. that's where I disagree with jason and others who complain about puppets. sometimes, marches and other events aren't and can't be about radically transforming the opinion of those who are leaning to the left and just need that extra push. they really aren't there. and at those times, we won't make much of a dent for those who really aren't anywhere near 'getting it.'
but what those struggles do is create symbolic, shared cultural events -- which are always important to keeping struggles alive and building solidarity. it's sociology and social psych 101.
And those things matter for kids like you 'n' me -- i assume from your email handle -- who grew up in the rustbelt and for whom the booming 80s seemed like a sick joke. When I looked around, I didn't see the world depicted in films like Wall St., etc. And when I was in high school, the stories political protest, kept alive by teachers who'd been involved in 60s protests, meant that I knew there was another way -- if only an inkling of knowledge of what had been and what could be. And while they were griping, those teachers, about the apathy of youth that followed the glorious 60s and early 70s, lo! there were people taking up struggles that blossomed in the 80s. Smaller, but still there. And while they were bitching in the early 90s about generation X, so apathetic they were claimed to be, lo! there were people taking up struggles that blossomed in the late 90s.
And so it goes.
I still don't feel my question's been answered tho. Concretely, what do you think a leftist's daily life ought to be like. one or two scenarios. something. I'm not getting where we're falling down on the job -- those of us who aren't at all living in isolated pockets of leftydom.