Understanding the New Left

Rafaella Leon

The fundamental premise of all Marxism - that is, of Marxism taken in all the variety of its styles and versions - is that all the essential problems are already solved, and that, in the end, only what remains are questions of strategy and tactics, if not rhetoric and propaganda. This premise is stupifying in itself, but the fact that it remains almost unconscious or at least undeclared increases “ad infinitum” its power to stupefy.

The open persecution that big media and internet companies move towards Christian and conservative publications is the integral and definitive proof that the left has already lost all legitimacy as a spokesman for the poor and oppressed and has become the instrument of psychosocial control with which the elite enslaves the herd mentality.

Premeditated or unpremeditated, this was, in essence, the result of the reform of Marxism by the "Frankfurt School". Georg Lukacs' late return to the Stalinist hardline was useless. The “negative dialectic” had already corroded, equally, the “trust society” and the “proletarian solidarity”. Instead of building socialism, it had just turned capitalism into hell. Either the frankfurtians suffered from that radical unpredictability that Eric Voegelin called “criminal stupidity”, or they were perfidious reactionaries committed to transform the left into an instrument of capitalist domination, or they were just trust fund babys who were playing negative dialectic while from the roof of a five-star hotel, they watched the world burn. The first hypothesis is the most human.

Emptied of the symbols that give a moral sense to work, commerce, savings, social order, law and even personal relationships, to what capitalism is reduced but to that terminal “raw capitalism” which, according to Marx, should immediately announce and precede the advent of socialism? But, since the socialist economy is impossible in its integral form and viable only in the hybrid form of the fascist economy (with that or another name), what is that it prevents raw capitalism from eternalizing, and that it does so precisely by replacing the old cultural symbols by the new simulacrum industry? Who doesn't realize that this is precisely the world we live in today, both in Beijing and in New York?

Take for instance the sporadic concessions to the demands of the “politically correct” - as in the past to those of the Party's “fair line”, which is exactly the same thing - are not enough to completely ruin a novel, a film, a play; but when these demands become mandatory and ubiquitous, they end up violating the most elementary laws of verisimilitude and thus destroy the very possibility of narrative art.
That is why today's cinema mainly seeks an audience of teenagers, in which the demand for verisimilitude yields easily to the urge for strong sensations. The verisimilitude judgment depends essentially on maturity, on the “experience of life”.

Ciceronianus

Perhaps there should be a forum category called "Pronouncements" reserved for announcements and declarations by those inclined to make them. It could have subcategories, e.g. "Pronouncements on Politics", "Pronouncements on Religion", or "Pronouncements on Science."

I suppose it would then be necessary to create a category called "Pronouncements on Pronouncements." There can never be too many, though.

praxis

I’m still unclear about whether the New Left is better than the Old Left.

Mikie

The open persecution that big media and internet companies move towards Christian and conservative publications is the integral and definitive proof — Rafaella Leon

:yawn:

And it’s the liberals who are supposed to be snowflakes.

Take your pontification and sell it to people who care.

Extra points for writing “verisimilitude” several times. You sound wicked smart.

Rafaella Leon

I’m still unclear about whether the New Left is better than the Old Left. — praxis

Women in soviet communism:

Women in social-democracy:

In the long run, social democracy does more damage to society and souls than autocratic communism. Since the extreme left has left economic discourse for "diversity" - gayzism, abortion, feminism, etc. - it has become dominant and mandatory in virtually all Western nations. Soon there will not be a single media body that dares to oppose it. And there are still con artists who deny there is a leftist hegemony of the media.

Mikie

And there are still con artists who deny there is a leftist hegemony of the media. — Rafaella Leon

There is no left hegemony. Conservative media dominates talk radio, cable news, has the most read newspaper in the country, etc. Hollywood is no doubt liberal.

Stop whining and grow up.

schopenhauer1

Emptied of the symbols that give a moral sense to work, commerce, savings, social order, law and even personal relationships, to what capitalism is reduced but to that terminal “raw capitalism” which, according to Marx, should immediately announce and precede the advent of socialism? But, since the socialist economy is impossible in its integral form and viable only in the hybrid form of the fascist economy (with that or another name), what is that it prevents raw capitalism from eternalizing, and that it does so precisely by replacing the old cultural symbols by the new simulacrum industry? Who doesn't realize that this is precisely the world we live in today, both in Beijing and in New York?

Take for instance the sporadic concessions to the demands of the “politically correct” - as in the past to those of the Party's “fair line”, which is exactly the same thing - are not enough to completely ruin a novel, a film, a play; but when these demands become mandatory and ubiquitous, they end up violating the most elementary laws of verisimilitude and thus destroy the very possibility of narrative art.
That is why today's cinema mainly seeks an audience of teenagers, in which the demand for verisimilitude yields easily to the urge for strong sensations. The verisimilitude judgment depends essentially on maturity, on the “experience of life”. — Rafaella Leon

Communism doesn't solve the problem.. You are still the stooge of the state rather than coordinated capital networks. It is the problem of life itself being a social animal. Try out antinatalism.. it's a much more comprehensive solution ;).

Michael

Soon there will not be a single media body that dares to oppose it. — Rafaella Leon

Good, because social democracy and left-wing politics are better than the alternative.

NOS4A2

↪Rafaella Leon

I would go so far to argue that it is no longer leftist. It is raw, naked authoritarianism, and it affects leftists too. It is more reactionary than liberal or communist.

praxis

↪NOS4A2

I'm shake'n in my little commi boots!

baker

And there are still con artists who deny there is a leftist hegemony of the media. — Rafaella Leon

It's fantastic, the stuff that gets ascribed to the "Left" ...

bert1

And there are still con artists who deny there is a leftist hegemony of the media. — Rafaella Leon

I don't recognise this at all. What country are you talking about?

Maw

Lol

Ciceronianus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAHJCPoWCC8

I admit I'm not sure just what is being condemned so adamantly in the OP. But by some of its content and tone, I can't help but be reminded of General Ripper's eloquent comment, in this clip. I confess to nostalgia.

Echarmion

Extra points for writing “verisimilitude” several times. You sound wicked smart. — Xtrix

And the name dropping about the Frankfurt school. Superb. It's very avant-garde to blame the Frankfurt school instead of the Jews, the Illuminati or the Bilderbergers.

I mean everyone can run the world if you have control over a whole religion, a secret society or just a lot of money. But to rule the world with just philosophical works most people have never heard about - that takes some skill.

Banno

↪baker

It's Murdoch, that little commie bastard!

Manuel

That's a pretty sweeping statement on many topics. It would help your argument to provide more empirical examples, specifically publicly observable ones, to help clear out what you mean to say. This non-sense of the PC left is a big distraction, mostly found online. Most people couldn't care less about pronouns or gender, just ask anybody in real life that's not in a university. They'll have no idea what is being said.

Also, how are these PC people "extreme left" in any significant sense? Do they talk about issues of financial inequality, war, global warming and so on? I rarely see them do so. It's a distraction to focus on them too much from much more pressing issues: climate change, global warming, increasing inequality, etc., etc. How is being super-PC "leftist"?

As for people who rule the world, or at least have power, Putin, Biden, Xi, Merkel and so on, I'm pretty confident that do not think about the world in terms of "negative dialectics". I don't think Zuckerberg or Bezos, et al. engage much with the Frankfurt School. These terms may be helpful for some people, but they'll certainly alienate the average person, and rightly so.

ssu

In the long run, social democracy does more damage to society and souls than autocratic communism. — Rafaella Leon

How?

Why is Norway worse than North Korea?

I have to point out what social democratic women look like. These are female social-democrats. Note the attire. Usually not very angry.

Banno

The fundamental premise of all fascism - that is, of fascism taken in all the variety of its styles and versions - is that all the essential problems are already solved, and that, in the end, only what remains are questions of strategy and tactics, if not rhetoric and propaganda. This premise is stupefying in itself, but the fact that it remains almost unconscious or at least undeclared increases “ad infinitum” its power to stupefy. — Rafaella Leon

(...just pointing out that the OP doesn't actually say anything...)

Baden

↪ssu

Why aren't they twerking???

ssu

↪Baden

Oh, because it's sexist and degrading capitalist humbug, I guess? But as physical exercise to ones hips, back and abdominal muscles, you might get them to do that perhaps.

Changeling

Understanding ~~the New Left~~ why middle-aged neckbeards pose as young ladies on forums.

counterpunch

I get what you're saying in the opening post, and agree - if what you're saying is that Marxism wasn't great to begin with, but the Frankfurt School, cross pollination with Critical Theory was disastrous. The first hypothesis may be the most human, but in my view - the last is the most accurate. Champagne socialists laughing as the world burns.

god must be atheist

↪ssu

How do we know these women on the photo are social democrats? To me they seem the exact same bunch that was the spill-over from the last wife-swapping extravaganza at the White House.

As to the OP: Marxism stands in its own way half true. It got the concept of overproduction crisis bang dead on. It got the end of the political dialectic materialism wrong bang dead on. It got the idea that capitalism socks, dead bang on. It got it wrong that communism is better, dead bang on.

A .500 batting average is superb, in my books, in those of my books that keep statistics on prophets and their predictions vis-a-vis reality.

Banno

Meh. The name New Left was already taken.

god must be atheist

↪Banno

There is no name like "new left" left. It left with the one thing or person that took it as you say. We're here, left behind, not knowing which way to turn, since we can only turn right.

god must be atheist

↪StreetlightX

Right. The new left ruined everything, by way of showing and advocating the ending of the complete oppression the ruling class had on the not-so-ruling class by pointing out that wealth inequities, guns, fundamental religionism, and working non-stop are not actual things that this society needs to perpetuate and hone to greater heights.

god must be atheist

Sorry, I forgot racism and Frankfurt Schoolism in the list.

Rafaella Leon

The new left ruined everything, by way of showing and advocating the ending of the complete oppression the ruling class had on the not-so-ruling class by pointing out that wealth inequities, guns, fundamental religionism, and working non-stop are not actual things that this society needs to perpetuate and hone to greater heights — god must be atheist

The Frankfurt School messed up with the idea of the proletarian revolution and passed the leadership of the revolutionary process to big capital. Those who do not realize this are blind or functionally illiterate.

Wayfarer

Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse feared that modern Western societies were turning into closed, totalitarian systems in which all individual autonomy was eliminated.

The nearest thing to that in American culture are the radical right - Trumpism, which actual democratic institutions are in a desparate struggle with. They're the ones marching around declaring that opponents ought to be shot. This 'cultural marxism' straw man is part of their disinformation campaign to demonise their opponents.

god must be atheist

↪Rafaella Leon

I stand corrected as charged. I am functionally illiterate, not blind. For your information.

I lived in a country where the proletarian revolution was the order of the day, every day. There was one big, huge flaw in the proletar revolution. After the old overlords were chased away or killed, the factory productions resumed. People manned the same machines as before. They WERE CONSTANTLY TOLD AFTER THE REVOLUTION, JUST LIKE BEFORE IT, what to do and how.

This is a fundamental function of society: hierarchical chain of command. Without it we just can't function.

This ended the 60 yearsof communist rule. People were dying of hunger before the revolution started. They literally worked themselves to death. After the revolution there was enough to eat, clothes to wear, gadgets to buy. But people are never satisfied with their collections of material possessions. So, the full stomach was taken for granted, and the workers still were pissed off about somebody breathing down their necks and adjusting their behaviour constantly.

"Meet the new boss!!
Same as the old boss!!"

These two lines sum it up best for me what it was that caused the failure of the glorious proletarian revolution.

Understanding the New Left

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