Monkey Riding Dragon
16th April 2009, 19:58
Disclaimer: I'm not really sure what forum this topic belongs in. It's really just a personal commentary on/observation of what seem to me to be important developments here in the United States. Sorry if I picked the wrong place! Anyhow...
As I've predicted for some time, the political polarization of the U.S. population appears to be rapidly increasing alongside the worsening of the depression and the continuation of foreign wars.
First off, we have a marked increase in support for socialism (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/04/socialism-gaining-ground-in-america.html) as an (undefined) idea. A recent random-sample (that is, scientific) Rasmussen poll asking Americans what type of system they preferred, only a tiny majority -- 53 percent -- responded that they favored capitalism over socialism. Fully 20 percent indicated that they preferred socialism over capitalism and another 27 percent were "unsure". The failure of the poll to define socialism no doubt has a significant bearing on the results, but nevertheless that's quite a stunning outcome in a country like this one which has been so especially thoroughly indoctrinated against socialism for so long now! This is a potentially revolutionary trend, if we make it one by giving it a communist content and leadership.
On another front, the Department of Homeland Security recently reported (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53D5SH20090414?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10504) that another broadly-defined radical tendency is also gaining ground in response to the economic crisis: "right-wing extremism". The report suggests an increase in "recruitment and radicalization" by, as the article describes them, "white supremacist groups, antigovernment extremists and militia movements". The articles says with respect to this new tide of right-wing populism: "Extremist groups are preying on fears that President Barack Obama, the first African American U.S. president, would restrict gun ownership, boost immigration and expand social programs for minorities, the report said. -- It said such groups were also exploiting anti-Semitic sentiment with accusations that "a cabal of Jewish financial elites" had conspired to collapse the economy." This is a reactionary trend, obviously.
So those are two emerging, and sharply conflicting, trends. A final trend, which is realistically the most dangerous, is that of the de-mobilization of non-independent 'progressive' currents (http://www.revcom.us/a/162/collapse-en.html), which encompasses most of the anti-war movement, the women's liberation movement, the civil rights movement, and far beyond. These reformist groups, as the article reports, are being sucked into a tide of complacency as a result of the election of Barack Obama to the presidency and of the Democrats to control of the U.S. Congress. They fall for the basic logic that the system can work for them and that the Democrats are the 'good guys' and so their reasoning now tells them that it's time to abandon opposition to the government. The article also describes that this trend extends out very broadly to encompass previously-opposition intellectuals, artists, and so on, as I've observed (e.g. Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Serj Tankian, etc.). Illusions that independent mass political mobilization is not necessary or just a semantic should be shattered by this development, as groups like United for Peace and Justice and Move On now go on pro-government campaigns rather than raising the sights of the masses to recognize their ability to change the world!
Communists need to provide fuel to the fire of radical, progressive opposition to the powers that be, demonstrating themselves to be the most uncompromising fighters for emancipation (an excellent example of that from a couple years back (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAKjz1KLhjs)), while giving these efforts a communist content in order to divert these struggles toward revolution (examples of that (http://www.revcom.us/a/online/taking_rev.html)).
[/commentary]
What are your thoughts on these developments? Or am I lacking the full picture here?
As I've predicted for some time, the political polarization of the U.S. population appears to be rapidly increasing alongside the worsening of the depression and the continuation of foreign wars.
First off, we have a marked increase in support for socialism (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/04/socialism-gaining-ground-in-america.html) as an (undefined) idea. A recent random-sample (that is, scientific) Rasmussen poll asking Americans what type of system they preferred, only a tiny majority -- 53 percent -- responded that they favored capitalism over socialism. Fully 20 percent indicated that they preferred socialism over capitalism and another 27 percent were "unsure". The failure of the poll to define socialism no doubt has a significant bearing on the results, but nevertheless that's quite a stunning outcome in a country like this one which has been so especially thoroughly indoctrinated against socialism for so long now! This is a potentially revolutionary trend, if we make it one by giving it a communist content and leadership.
On another front, the Department of Homeland Security recently reported (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53D5SH20090414?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10504) that another broadly-defined radical tendency is also gaining ground in response to the economic crisis: "right-wing extremism". The report suggests an increase in "recruitment and radicalization" by, as the article describes them, "white supremacist groups, antigovernment extremists and militia movements". The articles says with respect to this new tide of right-wing populism: "Extremist groups are preying on fears that President Barack Obama, the first African American U.S. president, would restrict gun ownership, boost immigration and expand social programs for minorities, the report said. -- It said such groups were also exploiting anti-Semitic sentiment with accusations that "a cabal of Jewish financial elites" had conspired to collapse the economy." This is a reactionary trend, obviously.
So those are two emerging, and sharply conflicting, trends. A final trend, which is realistically the most dangerous, is that of the de-mobilization of non-independent 'progressive' currents (http://www.revcom.us/a/162/collapse-en.html), which encompasses most of the anti-war movement, the women's liberation movement, the civil rights movement, and far beyond. These reformist groups, as the article reports, are being sucked into a tide of complacency as a result of the election of Barack Obama to the presidency and of the Democrats to control of the U.S. Congress. They fall for the basic logic that the system can work for them and that the Democrats are the 'good guys' and so their reasoning now tells them that it's time to abandon opposition to the government. The article also describes that this trend extends out very broadly to encompass previously-opposition intellectuals, artists, and so on, as I've observed (e.g. Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Serj Tankian, etc.). Illusions that independent mass political mobilization is not necessary or just a semantic should be shattered by this development, as groups like United for Peace and Justice and Move On now go on pro-government campaigns rather than raising the sights of the masses to recognize their ability to change the world!
Communists need to provide fuel to the fire of radical, progressive opposition to the powers that be, demonstrating themselves to be the most uncompromising fighters for emancipation (an excellent example of that from a couple years back (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAKjz1KLhjs)), while giving these efforts a communist content in order to divert these struggles toward revolution (examples of that (http://www.revcom.us/a/online/taking_rev.html)).
[/commentary]
What are your thoughts on these developments? Or am I lacking the full picture here?