This was echoed by almost everyone in the thread. I reacted sharply:
Marx was once asked in one of those parlour games "What
is your idea of happiness?" His answer was simple: "Fighting".
(zu kämpfen). Any rugby player knows what he means. This depression is pure
black magic - the propaganda machine makes us think it's all hopeless (QED so
to say) so we feel passive and powerless. But if you look at the explosions of
discontent that erupt all around, with people fighting heroically against what
seem to be insuperable odds, then humanity isn't passive, and often enough not powerless
either, cos the dictators and repressive scum get thrown out on their ear
regardless.
The dissenterati (aka "fake left") also do their bit to oil the machine (eg "CounterPunch" and pundits like Tariq Ali. They dispute the strategy of the rulers, but speak as if it's only them as individuals who can see what's up. That is, the masses are inanimate clay, sullenly and stupidly refusing to be quickened by the genius of the dissenterati. (Arundhati R is one of these but with much closer ties to struggle, and a correspondingly less fatalistic and depressing message.)
Shutting your ears to the deafening din of the cheerleaders and the skulkers sticking pins in them is salutary. But we don't have to shut ourselves up into our own little individualist boxes.
What sanity I have comes from a) knowing that humanity is where it's at, and humanity is not the ruling bourgeoisie or its lickspittle goons or the court jesters dissenting to general merriment and being flung chewed-on pieces of gristle from the table. It's billions of us with very elementary human needs that are deliberately being spat on. And b) knowing that all real (ie organized, mass-oriented) struggle taps into the strength of humanity, and its most powerful creative force, the working class -- presently covered over by the congealed sewage of our "labour leaders" and "progressive politicians", but smouldering and rumbling beneath the surface ready to erupt and flow free.
I'm not the pathetic old fraud I see in the mirror each morning, but a vital representative of human liberation. Whereas the rulers see vital representatives of civilization and justice in the mirror each morning, while they are in reality nothing but puffed up leprous reptiles.
We underestimate the huge amounts of money and energy they need to expend to keep us covered in shit - the truth is hard to hide! But we underestimate our own power and the simplicity of the measures required to do away with these vampires for good.
Let's put it this way - fighting is simple - but not easy.
So brighten up and pull your heads out of your arses - it's dark and shitty in there (like Plato's cave ;-). Breathe clean air and enjoy the sun!
The dissenterati (aka "fake left") also do their bit to oil the machine (eg "CounterPunch" and pundits like Tariq Ali. They dispute the strategy of the rulers, but speak as if it's only them as individuals who can see what's up. That is, the masses are inanimate clay, sullenly and stupidly refusing to be quickened by the genius of the dissenterati. (Arundhati R is one of these but with much closer ties to struggle, and a correspondingly less fatalistic and depressing message.)
Shutting your ears to the deafening din of the cheerleaders and the skulkers sticking pins in them is salutary. But we don't have to shut ourselves up into our own little individualist boxes.
What sanity I have comes from a) knowing that humanity is where it's at, and humanity is not the ruling bourgeoisie or its lickspittle goons or the court jesters dissenting to general merriment and being flung chewed-on pieces of gristle from the table. It's billions of us with very elementary human needs that are deliberately being spat on. And b) knowing that all real (ie organized, mass-oriented) struggle taps into the strength of humanity, and its most powerful creative force, the working class -- presently covered over by the congealed sewage of our "labour leaders" and "progressive politicians", but smouldering and rumbling beneath the surface ready to erupt and flow free.
I'm not the pathetic old fraud I see in the mirror each morning, but a vital representative of human liberation. Whereas the rulers see vital representatives of civilization and justice in the mirror each morning, while they are in reality nothing but puffed up leprous reptiles.
We underestimate the huge amounts of money and energy they need to expend to keep us covered in shit - the truth is hard to hide! But we underestimate our own power and the simplicity of the measures required to do away with these vampires for good.
Let's put it this way - fighting is simple - but not easy.
So brighten up and pull your heads out of your arses - it's dark and shitty in there (like Plato's cave ;-). Breathe clean air and enjoy the sun!
1 comment:
All my 'hopelessness' stems from thinking of the future .. and from the class of 'leaders' not the masses :P . They're incorrigible and err.. hopeless ^_^ . To think they'll lead the revolution , heck I think they'll break the revolution once they've done leading it !
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