https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m5AnP__bRo&list=RD2m5AnP__bRo&start_radio=1
I had just got back from a talk about Karl Marx in America, a book by Andrew Hartman, and was inspired to write some notes on the talk, it attitudes and perspectives, and the generally pitiful situation of social organization in the United States and the post-imperial English colonial world more generally. Andrew Hartman and Devin Thomas O'Shea outlined the influence of communists in shaping the modern American landscape, and the reasons for its collapse in the middle of the 20th century. I wrote a few words on this event, accidentally deleted them, wrote a few more, and was disgusted by myself. This is my third attempt to address the topic of this talk, and more importantly, the context in which this talk took place. I believe I have three primary points I would like to make as clearly as possible.
As an American, I'm pretty sure the Left does not exist. I have never seen a leftist victory. The United States exposes itself to marxist analysis, but this country has successfully purged itself of any lower class political power. The communist organization which aspires to relevancy must do more than theorize on why this is the case. You must be a real force in peoples lives, if you want people to give a shit.
Why lie about what you do? It is incredible that these various leftist organizations don't appreciate how much they actually do for each other. The most important thing these organizations do is provide identity and security, and a role in a social format that sucks far less than the wider society. There is no need to make your failures the focus. They are bad at overthrowing capitalism but there are things the communists do well.
The future is not inevitable, do not not try to sell me real estate on mars. Be communism now. Soup kitchens, news platforms, cultural events, public space. People loving each other.
Marxists are aware that they are boring and their theories are stale. It's funny watching a room full of people try to shove the modern world into a 1800's German worldview despite knowing it won't work. Hartman says this almost verbatim, and then proceeds to do it anyway, all the while grieving the lack of a better analysis. This is the first important takeaway from this talk. Why are Marxists trapped in a glass bottle, able to see but not touch the world? Everywhere, you see the influence of Marx. Any public service, any public good, that coexists with an industrialized society bears some marks of the theories of Karl. This is because the guy was basically correct in his analysis of how industrialization works. And yet everywhere we see the public being dismantled, the poor and unlucky left to die in the street. We see the worst category of vile gangsters raping and pillaging as they please while the police enforce poverty and the media spins a story of personal responsibility. Being so correct about so many things, how did the communist movement in the United States fail so completely? The first temptation is to say, "Actually, it is society which failed the Marxists!" This is the source of all disdain for marxism, communism, anarchism, and whatever else you want to lump in there with the rest of them. We all know that we must never do this. It is pathetic to blame society for the failure of your messianic delusions. The second possible escape route is to delude ourselves with participation, to say "Actually, society IS Marxist!" This mistake is more insidious. Society is marxist because karl marx spend years writing a book describing society. Once society is labeled as marxist, the anti-communist barbarians attack society in general, demanding that no shred of public goodwill be allowed to prosper. The whole edifice of society is degraded and turned into a competitive game, and the leaders of some tiny radical organization (its a book club) suppose they will be hailed as geniuses for all time, since they predicted this result. The "Left" is trapped in a containment zone, powerless to direct itself in any meaningful way, and lacking all authority when it speaks. Being bereft of consequences, the only thing left for dedicated "Leftists" to do is to proclaim victory or defeat, as if praying for the game to end. No matter what you do, you are told it doesn't matter. The current social organization of the left is oriented around the complete lack of threat it posed during the 80s 90s and 00s. Then, the primary focus was to make a stir, to prove that you exist, and to attract attention. Now, we live in a authoritarian police state. It is no longer enough to be viewed as clever, charming and useless aficionados of labor movement history. We must do things differently. We must pose a threat, we must follow through, and we must win or die. There is no sign of a victory on the horizon. That said,
I fuckin love these people.
I was watching this room full of very nice, very scared people try to make sense of the disaster around them. I was sitting next to strangers who did not closely guard their personal space. I felt, for the first time in a long time, that I had a right to be the room. St Louis is a true midwestern city. That means it is a city shaped by racial tension and mutual personal hatred in the public square. We are a lead-poisoned city whose reputation for violence has enabled a catastrophic level of suburban political power over our public life. To be in a room where I felt like I belonged is a huge deal. It was fantastic. It was water in the desert. In this way, the marxists have achieved something truly wonderful. They have collectively remembered what it means to live together. Through McCarthy, through Reagan, Clinton, and Obama, these little groups and their powerless networks trundled along unaided by hope or external evidence of progress. Now, the liberal facade of American society washes away under the fascist tide, and it is these little groups who seem to be the last bastion of decency in a dying world. It is my earnest hope that with the cold war over, and the elders of that era fading out, the possibility of progress and solidarity will return. The cold war could not truly end until both USSR and USA were broken as unquestionable global powers. Even the most radical of communists knew that the collapse of the American system would result in massive suffering for the world, and especially for the Americans. With the rise of Trump, this has come to pass. It would not be surprising if the regime began rounding up leftists, for imprisonment, deportation, or death. What will cause more suffering, however, is the collapse of the logistical lines and social ties we rely on. The destruction of vaccine programs, of food distribution, of all the administrative functions of a society, will produce a desperate condition. This, now, is the water that these dry spores have been waiting for, to leap from their books and into the world, to become real people after decades of cartoonish pretending. These are places of comfortable togetherness, defined by the generous sense of belonging, the true welcome of strangers, and the clear-eyed purposeful thinking that produced that welcome. I hope (when nobody is looking I do hope) that these places can cover the world.
The rest of this essay, which I rewrote many times, and have now abandoned, was just some tired arguments about the prices of things. We come into this world naked, and are made to live by the assistance of others. The price of that assistance is that we owe our lives to each other, and no cost nor trouble can be greater than that debt which ties one person to the rest of us. The price of a coat, of fabric, of firewood, I leave for the specialists.
I leave also these empty bottles, worth five cents each at the recycling center, whose contents have long since escaped.