Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
My political entry into the left (and by this I mean the real left, beyond the Democratic Party) came a little more than twenty years ago in New Orleans, when, as a college student I became involved in the fight against U.S. intervention in Central America. In particular, the groups of which I was a part sought to end military aid to the death squad governments in El Salvador and Guatemala, and to block support for the contra thugs our nation was arming in Nicaragua, who by that time had already killed about 30,000 civilians in their war with the nominally socialist Sandinista government.
It was the first place where I came into contact with folks who defined themselves as radicals (I had grown up in Nashville, after all, where at that time, even finding "out" liberals was sometimes a challenge), and where I got to experience all the fascinating permutations of Marxism that the left had to offer. In addition to unaffiliated socialists (which I considered myself to be at the time), there were Trotskyites, old-line Leninists, Maoists, and even some bizarre Stalinists in the bunch. Excluding from consideration those among this number who turned out to be FBI spies, there were still plenty of real and interesting ideologues who had valuable insights to offer, even for those of us who didn't swallow their particular party line.
But despite being interesting, these folks also managed, at least for me, to demonstrate one of the key problems with the left in the U.S. Namely, for the sake of ideological purity few within the professional left expressed any joy about life, or any emotion whatsoever that wasn't rooted in negativity. They were like the political equivalent of quaaludes: guaranteed to bring you down from whatever partly optimistic place you might find yourself from time to time.
This was never so evident as the day I hopped into a car with one of the Stalinoids (a member of something called the Albanian Liberation League, which viewed the brutal regime of Enver Hoxha as a worker's paradise), and headed downtown for a rally to protest Contra aid. Once in the car, I asked about the music playing from his stereo. What was it? I wanted to know. He quickly explained that it was Albanian folk music, and the only music he listened to. I made some joke about how strange it was to be living in one of the greatest musical towns on Earth and yet to restrict oneself to a single genre of music (especially that favored by Albanian sheepherders), to which my revolutionary friend responded with a grunt and a scowl. Of course, because Comrade Stalin never much liked jazz.
The humorlessness of the far left--to which I remain connected ideologically if not organizationally--has always struck me as one of its greatest weaknesses. People like to laugh, they like to smile, they like to be joyful, and an awful lot of hardened leftists seem almost utterly incapable of doing any of these things. It's as if they have all taken a pledge that there should be no laughter until the revolution, or some such shit. No positivity, no hope, no happiness so long as people are still poor and exploited and being murdered by cops, and victimized by United States militarism, or performing as wage slaves for global capital, or eating meat, or driving cars. And they wonder why the left is so weak?
Now, in the wake of Barack Obama's victory these barbiturate leftists are back in full effect, lecturing the rest of us about how naive we are for having any confidence whatsoever in him, or for voting at all, since "the Democrats and Republicans are all the same," and he supports FISA and the war with Afghanistan, and all kinds of other messed up policies just like many on the right. Those of us who find any significance in the election of a man of color in a nation founded on white supremacy are fools who "drank the kool-aid," unlike they, whose clear-headed radical consciousness leads them to recognize the superior morality of Ralph Nader, or the pure "scientific wisdom of chairman Bob Avakian," or the intellectual profundity of their favorite graffiti bomb: "If voting changed anything it would be illegal." Yeah, and if body piercings and anarchy tats changed anything, they would be too, and then what would some folks do to be "different?" (Note: there is nothing wrong with either type of adornment, but getting either or both doesn't make you a revolutionary, any more than voting, that's all I'm saying).
These are people who think being agitators is about pissing people off more than reaching out to them. So they pull out their "Buck Fush" signs at their repetitively irrelevant antiwar demonstrations, or their posters with W sporting a Hitler mustache, because that tends to work so well at convincing folks to oppose the slaughter in Iraq. But effectiveness isn't what matters to them. What matters to them is raging against the machine for the sake of rage itself. Their message is simple: everything sucks, the earth is doomed, all cops are brutal, all soldiers are baby-killers, all people who work for corporations are evil, blah, blah, blah, right on down the line. It's as if much of the left has become co-dependent with despondency, addicted to its own isolation, and enamored of its moral purity and unwillingness to work with mere liberals. In the name of ideological asceticism, they spurn the hard work of movement building and inspiring others to join the struggle, snicker at those foolish enough to not understand or appreciate their superior philosophical constructs, and then act shocked when their movements and groups accomplish exactly nothing. But honestly, who wants to join a movement filled with people who look down on you as a sucker?
If we on the left want those liberals to join the struggle for social justice and liberation, we're going to have to meet people where they are, not where Bakunin would want them to be. For those who can't get excited about Obama, so be it, but at least realize that there are millions of people who, for whatever reason, are; people who are mobilized and active, and that energy is looking for an outlet. Odds are, that outlet won't be the Obama administration, since few of them will actually land jobs with it. So that leaves activist formations, community groups and grass-roots struggles. That leaves, in short, us. Just as young people inspired by the center-right JFK candidacy in 1960 ultimately moved well beyond him on their way to the left and made up many of the most committed and effective activists of the 60s and early 70s, so too can such growth occur now among the Obama faithful. But not if we write them off.
At some point, the left will have to relinquish its love affair with marginalization. We'll have to stop behaving like those people who have a favorite band they love, and even damn near worship, until that day when the band actually begins to sell a lot of records and gain a measure of popularity, at which point they now suck and have obviously sold out: the idea being that if people like you, you must not be doing anything important, and that obscurity is the true measure of integrity. Deconstructing the psychological issues at the root of such a pose is well above my pay grade, but I'm sure would prove fascinating.
The simple fact is, people are inspired by Obama not because they view him as especially progressive per se (except in relation to some of the more retrograde policies of the current president, and in relation to where they feel, rightly, McCain/Palin would have led us), but because most folks respond to optimism, however ill-defined it may be. This is what the Reaganites understood, and for that matter it's what Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement knew too. It wasn't anger and pessimism that broke the back of formal apartheid in the south, but rather, hope, and a belief in the fundamental decency of people to make a change if confronted by the yawning chasm between their professed national ideals and the bleak national reality.
In other words, what the 60s freedom struggle took for granted, but which the cynical barbiturate left refuses to concede, is the basic goodness of the people of this nation, and the ability of the nation, for all of its faults (and they are legion) to change. Look at pictures of the freedom riders in 1961, or the volunteers during Freedom Summer of 1964 and notice the dramatic difference between them and some of the seething radicals of today--whose radicalism is almost entirely about style and image more than actual analysis and movement building. In the case of the former, even as they stared down mobs intent on injuring or killing them, and even as they knew they might be murdered, they smiled, they laughed, they sang, they found joy. In the case of the latter, one most often notices an almost permanent scowl, a dour and depressing affect devoid of happiness, unable to appreciate life until the state is smashed altogether and everyone is subsisting on a diet of wheatgrass, bean curd and tempeh.
Hell, maybe I'm just missing the strategic value of calling people "useful idiots," or likening them to members of a cult, the way some leftists have done recently with regard to Obama supporters. Or maybe it's just that being a father, I have to temper my contempt for this system and its managers with hope. After all, as a dad (for me at least), it's hard to look at my children every day and think, "Gee, it sucks that the world is so screwed up, and will probably end in a few years from resource exploitation...Oh well, I sure hope my daughters have a great day at school!"
Fatherhood hasn't made me any less radical in my analysis or desire to see change. In fact, if anything, it has made me more so. I am as angry now as I've ever been about injustice, because I can see how it affects these children I helped to create, and for whom I am now responsible. But anger and cynicism do not make good dance partners. Anger without hope, without a certain faith in the capacity of we the people to change our world is a sickness unto death. It is consuming, like a flesh-eating disease, and whose first victim is human compassion. While I would never counsel too much confidence in far-right types to join the struggle for justice--and there, I think skepticism is well-warranted--if we can't conjure at least a little optimism for the ability of liberals and Democrats to come along for the ride and to do the work, then what is the point? Under such a weighty and pessimistic load as this, life simply becomes unbearable. And if there is one thing we cannot afford to do now--especially now--it is to give up the will to live and to fight, another day.
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Re: Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
By Street, Paul at Dec 02, 2008 11:16 AM
I nominate the notion of “the anti-Obama left” as the single most idiotic Carl Davidson idea of 2008 – and that’s saying a lot. Honorable mention: “the Obama left.”
Carl's got nothing left but Orwellian absurdity.
Still, I can certainly understand why Davidson would want to segregate the (anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-sexist, anti-repression, anti-ecocide, anti-Drug War, anti-authoritarian) Left from the often (not always) confused “progressives for Obama” crowd. Look at Obama’s brazenly corporate-neoliberal and War Hawk cabinet appointments. They are of course straight out of what the Left has been saying about the openly corporate-imperial Obama over recent months and years. And it’s only going to get worse.
This is the harsh consequence of “power as it really is, not as many of wish it to be” (to quote John Pilger from the back of my book on Obama).
Davidson quite naturally wants to keep radical realists away from liberal and progressive fantasists when it comes to the Obama phenomenon. What a sorry state to reach in his activist career.
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Tim and Obama appealing to racists
By Green, Chris at Nov 29, 2008 22:09 PM
I remember last year and earlier this year he was pretty harsh about Obama's race neutral strategy. I now remember that in one of the essays in Tim's latest book he predicted that Obama could not win the election without appealing to white racists. Thus Obama tried to portray himself as racially harmless as possible, not addressing structural racism, making mild Bill Cosby like lecture to poor blacks, etc. I would like to see if Tim could possible explain why he spoke so harshly about Obama's avoidance of serious racial issues earlier but now after the campaign, he has got swept up in Obamamania.
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Re: Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
By Green, Chris at Nov 28, 2008 21:03 PM
Well again, it would be far moe constructive if Tim would address tangible arguments of specific individuals rather than ranting against an amorphous group of "far Leftists" who are spoiling his fun. Tim has a good heart but he's getting a little carried away by emotion lately. He's close to the pulse of the African American masses toward whom he has an admirable committment. But he seems to have been partly overtaken by the irrational strains in the Obama movement.. I hope he will eventually return to making the brilliant critiques of Obama's race neutral politics he made earlier in the year.
Tim rants that Obama critics on the left say that Obama can't possibly do anything good. Well that's a reflection of the understanding of anti-Obama leftists that whatever pretty things presidential canidates say on the campaign trail, they are immediately co-opted, once they get into office by by Wall Street, the foreign policy establishment, the military industrial complex, etc. Obama is currently following that pattern to the letter. My own criticism of the Obama movement is based on the fact that alot of people don't realize that one man in the presidency isn't going to change anything and many have expectations for Obama that are irrational.
Remember Tim, pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
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Re: Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
By Green, Chris at Nov 28, 2008 20:02 PM
Well again, it would be far moe constructive if Tim would address tangible arguments of specific individuals rather than ranting against an amorphous group of "far Leftists" who are spoiling his fun. Tim has a good heart but he's getting a little carried away by emotion lately. He's close to the pulse of the African American masses toward whom he has an admirable committment. But he seems to have been partly overtaken by the irrational strains in the Obama movement.. I hope he will go back to making the brilliant critiques of Obama's race neutral politics he made earlier in the year.
Tim rants that Obama critics on the left say that Obama can't possibly do anything good. Well that's a reflection of the understanding of anti-Obama leftists that whatever pretty things presidential canidates say on the campaign trail, they are immediately co-opted, once they get into office by by Wall Street, the foreign policy establishment, the military industrial complex, etc. My own criticism of the Obama movement is based on the fact that alot of people don't realize that one man in the presidency isn't going to change anything and have expectations for Obama that are irrational.
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Re: Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
By Street, Paul at Nov 28, 2008 14:28 PM
I suppose I'm one of the leading hard left critics of Obama. I just spoke on the Obama phenomenon before 100 in Iowa City - a ground-zero Obama town. I went to great lengths to be respectful, courteous, hopeful, optimistic, and so on. There were smiles and applause all around. I was very friendly, happy, nice, optimistic (so were the 20 or so left Obama critics and antiwar activists in the crowd), and, if I might say so, funny. I wish I had a video to link because it was a lovely evening and there were good feelings all around. We talked about the severe limits (from a left standpoint) of Obama's imperial foreign policy positions to date of the people he is appointing to key foreign policy positions and about how people now need to go deeper and get to the real work of forcing change from the bottom up beneath and beyond electoral extravanganzas. I gave a number of reasons that people should not confuse a calculating politcian like Obama with a great left peace and justice leader like Dr. King. But I also talked about how it is good that McCain got defeated and that people seem to think things can change. I related some of my experiences helping Obama and other candidates win votes (I was helping a state candidate mainly but this meant working for the top of the Dem ticket too) in some rural white counties in eastern Iowa. I finished with Kropotkin's quote that "revolutions are born from hope, not despair." The audience included a large number of regular middle class and middle-aged townies, many of whom had Caucused for Edwards or Kucinich and who voted for Obama (somewhat reluctantlly and defensively) without illusion. Many of them had nice and forward-looking responses.
But as far as the local college paper was concerned, the event was some sort of harsh negative gathering of extremist ideologues. This was pure slander. Sad. And also standard operating procedure here. In the Caucus campaign around here, even the semiprogressive John Edwards ---- forget just left-anarchists/Marxists like me --- would often get called "too negative" by Obama supporters.
This and other experiences makes me fairly skeptical about this essay's attempt to paint Obama's left critics out as hyper-alienated and bitter, psychotic complainers and pessimists. There's some of that but how much, really? I see a very different sort of energy and a very different group of people on the left that can't get enthralled by Obama. I see and talk to that group everyday and Wise is misprepresenting most (not all, but most) people in the group.
I'm disappointed (though not surprised, I'm afraid) to see Tim lining up with this creeply perspective ("they're bitter pessimists") on people I know and respect.
I completely confess to being cynical about Obama (who I observed for years on the South Side of Chicago and in Springield IL) but personally never generalize about Obama's supporters. As I've said before, it's a huge and diverse group with all kinds of different reasons for supporting Obama. There were different Obama voters/supporters: some are in fact badly duped by "Brand Obama" marketing (this group does in fact exist and is not small and includes many who will say they'e on the left), some are not. Some BO voters are ga ga and some are not. Some BO voters are actually a bit cynical. Some are idealistic. Some voted reluctantly and without illusion and some voted eagerly and with illusion. Some voted strictly on race. Some voted defensively (just to block McCain) and some voted with a lot more hope riding on their ballot.
I need to say something else. I have yet to hear one of Obama's left critics speak about Obama's supporters with anything close to the bitter violence and sheer ugliness that Tim Wise expressed towards leftists in one his more recent pieces ("Back to Work," where he essentially said that some radical Obama critics do not deserve to live....I was shocked that ZNet actually put that piece up with that sort of vile language included, to be perfectly honest). It's nice to see him take a more human tone here, but I can't escape the feeling that Tim is feeling very vulnerable on the left because of an over-the-top identification with a very bourgeois and imperial candidate. He probably knows he should have done some more basic due-diligence research on Obama before becoming quite as bonded as he did to the candidate (who is only going to shame and embarass his left supporters more and more in coming weeks and months....look at these cabinet appointments!). They find it easier to charge "bittter over-alienation" than to take an honest and serious look in the mirror and to go deeper on the reality of the Obama phenomenon. .
.
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In the words of a certain Mr. Shaw:
By Z., Mickey at Nov 28, 2008 16:00 PM
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Re: In the words of a certain Mr. Shaw:
By Bernal, Ruben at Nov 29, 2008 02:20 AM
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Re: Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
By Hines, Mart at Nov 27, 2008 22:30 PM
The only message I can read in this article is something like: don't spoil the party.
I can imagine such a reaction, at least for people who consider Obama's victory to be something like a party. But to me Obama's victory is not a party at all, and I hope that I have the freedom not to celebrate it.
Anyone may think about Obama's victory whatever he/she likes.
But please don't lecture others about what to think or say about it.
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Re: a reply to all
By Bernal, Ruben at Nov 28, 2008 10:22 AM
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Civil Rights Propaganda
By Sperber, Joshua at Nov 27, 2008 16:04 PM
Wise perpetuates a mystified view of the Civil Rights Era. Reforms weren't won merely through the actions of optimistic pacifists. These pacifists exploited and benefited from the existence of violent militants. Historian Thaddeus Russell recounts how MLK asked the racist Montgomery Chamber of Commerce: Do you want to deal with them ("scowling" militants) or us (suit-wearing, well-behaved, optimists)? Movement gains cannot be explained apart from the bargaining leverage provided by these and other threats to the system.
And I usually only expect to be told to smile when working at restaurants or other service sector jobs. "Smile" is the perfect slogan for the corporate left, as its interest in denying differences complements its obsession over recruitment and organization. Regarding this obsession, Wise is no different from the Troskyist dinosaurs he derides. But while they're bullies too, they're at least not in favor of posing as Mickey Mouse.
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Re: Shhhhhhh.....
By Andrews, John at Nov 27, 2008 09:36 AM
Mickey
Add the death of an untold number of Afghanis, Palestinians and possibly Iranians as well. Otherwise, an excellent response to an article the likes of which I have not seen since I last read Thomas Friedman.
Best wishes
John Andrews
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Re: Some Cyanide to Go With That Whine? Obama's Victory and the Rage of the Barbiturate Left
By Hosepyan, Yetvart at Nov 27, 2008 08:05 AM
Well Said Tim. I agree if we cannot have a revolution we should not stop in making the world a better place with the options currently available.
It is really easy to put everything Obama has done down. Look at his economic advisors who are actually from past administrations and culprits for the current problems in many ways. But what is he supposed to do exactly? His choice for treasury secretary is poor but it is less poor than say Larry Summers. Putting real options on the table be it economic or otherwise requires serious thought and effort. I do not know that many people and organizations that actually do that. CEPR.net is a brilliant exception when it comes to economic issues. Not only did they correctly predicted the two bubbles, they explained why in terms everybody can understand and suggested solutions to these problems.
A lot of the left that I know in Vancouver appears to be more after style as you say than any actual issues. But there are others who do very progressive deeds without grandiose titles and proclamations. And with a lot of fun too.
Thanks again for writing about it.
Yetvart
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Be more specific Tim
By Green, Chris at Nov 26, 2008 23:27 PM
It would be helpful if Tim would provide some specific examples of the people whose arguments against Obama bother him. Perhaps some folks really do make the arguments that Tim outlines, though if they are followers of Mr. Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party , I don't see why they should be paid attention to. Perhaps some people go too far in the other direction away from Obama worship and become so cynical that they can't see the possibilities of the Obama movement. But Paul Street, to pick a prominent example, has shown with devastating documentation that Obama is a corporate centrist neoliberal imperialist but has also pointed out that the Obama movement does have possibilities for organizers.
So what do we do with Obama fans Tim? Do we not point out, however politely, that Obama's economic team, has implemented policies in the past that have had horrible consequences for working people across the globe? Should we not tell them the truth as we see it? Are you saying we should pander to their wrong beliefs? Should we not politely point out to them that, in contrast to the belief of many Obama fans,electing politicians dosen't bring change but pressure from below on those politicians is the only hope? Should we not politiely point out the fallacy of wishful thinking, while also making constructive proposals that would help that thinking become more of a reality? Wishful thinking is something William Greider recently criticized. After the election, Greider foolishly declared that Obama was a "great and brave teacher" just like Dr. King. Now, in light of the announcement of Obama's center-right economic team, he, Greider, has criticized himself for wishfully thinking that Obama was committed to a left progressive course. I'm all for working with decent liberals but there is always the danger in such situations of getting co-opted by elites. Again, Tim dosen't provide any examples of people who argue against working with Obama's liberal supporters
Wise did some very good analysis of Obama's unwillingness to attack structural racism in this country in essays that are found in his very fine latest book. Perhaps many of Obama's supporters will eventually become disillusioned with his failure to do anything decent as president and will move toward the left. Hopefully left-centered groups will be there to recruit them. I've heard some netroots people and Rachel Maddow of Air America and MSNBC harshly attack Obama for his center-right cabinet appointments so maybe that is the start of a left wing drift of the activist Democrat "grassroots." Or maybe they'll shut up once he gets into office and concentrate on denouncing his right wing enemies instead of his policies.
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The point?
By Oregon, Matt at Nov 26, 2008 23:24 PM
I think I'm a pretty intelligent guy, but after reading this article, I can't figure out what exactly Wise is trying to say. Is he simply bashing the left, in retaliation for their bashing the Democrats? I don't think anyone would argue against the idea that negativity for negativity's sake is unproductive, but there are perfectly valid reasons why "the" left might be less-than-optimistic about Obama. It's difficult to get excited about compromise, when it feels like you're giving up 99% of what you want, and the other guy is giving up 1%. What do you want, Wise? Optimism? So maybe the world will last 11 more years under Obama, as opposed to 10 under McCain/Bush; I'll choose Obama in that case, of course, but what do you want me to say? "Whoopee"? Do you want me to fake it? Because I sure as heck don't feel it.
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Shhhhh....
By Z., Mickey at Nov 27, 2008 09:03 AM
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Re: The point?
By Marshall, Bob at Nov 28, 2008 18:57 PM
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Re: The point?
By Davidson, Carl at Nov 30, 2008 19:08 PM
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