Written by Igor Goldkind
Continued from Part 2 of 3
I
don't applaud or even support all the actions and ideologies of the
left. Many suffer from self-delusion, self-righteousness, intolerance
and just as nefarious intent as the right; e.g. the 2106 Democratic
primary (that is, only if you're so right wing do you consider
Democrats as equivalent leftists). Mainly I despise the current
progressive left for being so far up their own digestive tracks as to
permit the election of an unqualified, incompetent candidate! Jill
Stein? No, this is well beyond left or right; this is about whether
or not you understand and advocate for the U.S. Constitution or
whether you adhere to contradicting the Constitution by imposing
dictates like the Ten Commandments and the irresponsibility of
unregulated market capitalism.
Like most things, disdain is born of ignorance. The left has always been viewed in measure to how close to Marxism it drifts on our traditional spectrum. But that has mainly to do with a basic misunderstanding of Marxist rhetoric on the part of most Americans. For example, Marx’s Das Capital is not a blueprint for revolution regardless of whether revolutionaries from Lenin through Mao to Castro took it as such. Marx was never a revolutionary or even, strictly speaking, political. Karl Marx was a socio-economist, interested in scientifically tracing the origins and causes of his current social system, in both England and France where he studied everything from the Paris Communes to the British miner’s union.
His work is a critique and a warning against the dangers of unbridled Capitalism, not a prescription for its replacement. It was Lenin and Mao Tse Tung that decided that they knew what to replace their respective monarchical systems with. They were merely following the first American and then French models of revolutionary severance in an emerging industrial society where the rule of Capital was quickly replacing the seat of power and oppression held by the monarchy and the church. Remember that Fidel Castro first appealed to the U.S. to support his democratic revolution and only turned to Soviet-style Communism when his entreaties were rejected by us. Castro had read the U.S. Constitution and mistakenly thought that a nation built on the foundation stone of revolution would sympathize and support his struggle against the dictator Baptista. Boy, was he going to get a wake up call!
This is all summarised by the very first international convention on Marxism attended by scholars, writers and politicians from all over the world. The keynote speaker at the end was to be an aged Karl Marx himself! After listening to hour upon hour of dissertation and speech on the tenets of Marxism by every leading self-described Marxist in the world, when Karl Marx was ushered to the podium to the thunder of a standing ovation, for Marx was clearly the patron saint of all of them, he paused. Karl Marx leaned into the microphone and after the long pause pronounced: “Thank you everyone, thank you very much but after I’ve heard everything I’ve heard today, I want you all to be very clear about one thing: I am not a Marxist!”
Like most things, disdain is born of ignorance. The left has always been viewed in measure to how close to Marxism it drifts on our traditional spectrum. But that has mainly to do with a basic misunderstanding of Marxist rhetoric on the part of most Americans. For example, Marx’s Das Capital is not a blueprint for revolution regardless of whether revolutionaries from Lenin through Mao to Castro took it as such. Marx was never a revolutionary or even, strictly speaking, political. Karl Marx was a socio-economist, interested in scientifically tracing the origins and causes of his current social system, in both England and France where he studied everything from the Paris Communes to the British miner’s union.
His work is a critique and a warning against the dangers of unbridled Capitalism, not a prescription for its replacement. It was Lenin and Mao Tse Tung that decided that they knew what to replace their respective monarchical systems with. They were merely following the first American and then French models of revolutionary severance in an emerging industrial society where the rule of Capital was quickly replacing the seat of power and oppression held by the monarchy and the church. Remember that Fidel Castro first appealed to the U.S. to support his democratic revolution and only turned to Soviet-style Communism when his entreaties were rejected by us. Castro had read the U.S. Constitution and mistakenly thought that a nation built on the foundation stone of revolution would sympathize and support his struggle against the dictator Baptista. Boy, was he going to get a wake up call!
This is all summarised by the very first international convention on Marxism attended by scholars, writers and politicians from all over the world. The keynote speaker at the end was to be an aged Karl Marx himself! After listening to hour upon hour of dissertation and speech on the tenets of Marxism by every leading self-described Marxist in the world, when Karl Marx was ushered to the podium to the thunder of a standing ovation, for Marx was clearly the patron saint of all of them, he paused. Karl Marx leaned into the microphone and after the long pause pronounced: “Thank you everyone, thank you very much but after I’ve heard everything I’ve heard today, I want you all to be very clear about one thing: I am not a Marxist!”
It's
really that simple.
Don't
be distracted by the false claims of partisanship so often paraded by
the right. And use anything you find useful here to pursue this
argument with those supporting the extreme Right.
Donald
Trump isn't right wing, he is simply and indisputably a betrayer of
the U.S. Constitution.
So
let's put aside our redundant spectrum labels, let's renounce our own
affiliations and denounce all politics up till now whilst at the same
time re-examine the history of our nation's
founding. Let us enter into debate and discussion with our fellow
citizens and engage in disagreement and persuasion based not on
whether a political leaning fits your particular style or mood, but
whether the issue, the organization, the person or the principle
being examined either supports or contradicts the founding ideology
of our (already), great, democratic republic.
The only way we are going to rise above the rubble of our political spectrum is to dig deep into the original American values upon which this country is founded. Not closure or exclusion but hope, promise and progress. We are a nation founded on reason and reason is what we all desperately need to return to or we will cease to be the nation our forefathers and fore-immigrants dreamt of.
The only way we are going to rise above the rubble of our political spectrum is to dig deep into the original American values upon which this country is founded. Not closure or exclusion but hope, promise and progress. We are a nation founded on reason and reason is what we all desperately need to return to or we will cease to be the nation our forefathers and fore-immigrants dreamt of.
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