--- Dwayne Monroe <dwayne.monroe at gmail.com> wrote:
> What is your ideal Left? Perhaps a left-leaning
> technocracy? Vast
> and cool efficiency for the sake of socialism as
[WS:] It would not be such a bad thing, I suppose. When you fly a commercial airliner or undergo a surgery, would you want your pilot or your surgeon to be a cool and efficient technocrat or a popular demagogues who got their jobs because of their ability to play the crowds? How come that we want efficient technicians to perform most specilized tasks of everyday life - from flying aircraft, to designing our homes, bridges, or automobiles, to teaching our children, and to treating our illness - but then we suddenly settle for bumbling idiots who can play the crowds when it comes the management of the most complex institution even created - the state?
I am pretty sure that an effcient technocracy under socialism would achive far more in making everyday life more fair and rewarding to everyone and free from poverty, exploitation and misery than any left of populist movement build around personal charisma of the leader can even dream of.
I personally abhor bombast and bull fighting that often permeate populist discourse on left and right - I take your point that US is not excpetion here, however EU politics seem to have much less of them. But my personal preferences aside, I think that personal charisma, populist appeal and bombast may be good in show business, but they are dangarous things when it comes to power and governance. They effectively shut down critical thinking, accountablity mechanisms and replace them with personality cults and blind jumping on the bandwagon.
So that is why I would consider socialist technocary or perhaps technocratic socialism a better alternative to the hysterical, bombastic and populist left that we know.
> So it seems a bit, well, unhelpful, to suggest that
> the American Left
> is uniquely unfocused or undisciplined or what have
> you. If there is
> a superior model, let's hear about it and talk about
> what makes it
> sharper than its US counterpart.
[WS:] I take your point, the US is not exceptional in this respect. However, EU politics seem to have much less bombast, preoccupation with celebrity and personality cult of their government officials, and basically is much more accepting of diverse political opinions in public discourse. At least this is the impression that I have, but this also seems to be consistent with analyses of deTocueville or more recently Arendt Lijphart. So for now, if the US politcal discourse became more like western European one - it would be an improvement.
Wojtek
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