[lbo-talk] Weiner unhid!

[Wojtek S]

SA: "The evangelical hymn was appropriate, because this is an
evangelical approach to politics. It's about saving souls - but who
cares about saving souls? Surely, as someone who admires Marx, you can
see that businesses can't be brought to be nice to workers through
moralism; consumers can't be brought to use less carbon through
moralism; and by the same measure, leftists can't be brought by
moralism not to vote for the Democrats. In each case people behave as
they do not because they've failed to see the light on the shore, but
because of the structural situation they are in. Lesser-evilism isn't
a sinful lifestyle, it's a structural condition in which we find
ourselves. If we want to work our way out of this situation,
moralizing -- and worse, ridicule and invective -- won't help. Only
strategy will. I don't have a twelve-point plan for this, but if such
a plan existed it would surely involve, at some stage, working with
Democrats, both elected ones and rank-and-filers."

[WS:] This is a very sensible way to put it, indeed.  I could not agree more.

Having said that, however, I can also see the value of blowing off
steam on the internet - especially in a way that does not use other
list members as punching boys.  It serves as catharsis of a sort in
these rotten times.  Kvetching about Democrats seems to fit that mold,
but it also smacks of juvenile contumacy - I will stomp my feet and
curse at my mom because she did not give me what I wanted.  Without
this child-parent frame, kvetching about Democrats makes little sense
- nobody kvetches about an asshole stranger who did not give us what
we wanted.

Wojtek