Seriously, what is it with the latest attack on Communist ideology that seems overwhelmingly to be the perspective that I've noticed in intellectual circles? It's not like Communism is a threat to entrenched bourgeois interests anymore, and yet the attacks seem to only have gotten more intense. Apparently the New New Left (to use the shorter euphemism rather than the more accurate, but way-too-long title that I've bestowed on them) feels the need to distance themselves from Stalinism in order to get taken seriously by the other anti-communists: the Right.
Now, I'm no Stalinist and I will readily point out the failures/frustrations/and downright evil that was done in the name of Communism, but I don't think this is reason enough to discount the whole philosophy. A couple of counter-points and then a final, conclusive point:
Counterpoint 1: Plenty of nasty and evil things have been done in the name of all sorts of ideologies (by extremists and moderates, alike). I've been reading a British-written history of Iran, which lauds Reza Shah for modernizing his nation (which happened at the expense of the nomads of Iran). And what about the Native Americans? Sure the anti-communist left might admit that this is an evil, but will they condemn America, or democracy, or modern culture in the same terms that they condemn communism? Not at all. What about slavery? (With the same response from the anti-communist left.)
Counterpoint 2: Some of the most intelligent, compassionate, interesting people I've met have been Communists - Old School (which these days means, just plain old). This counts a lot in my book. Stalin was a thug (literally), but he hardly represents all Communists. The problem was that once he became the figurehead of international Communism, the rest of the movement felt compelled to go along with him for the same reason that plenty of people respected Nixon, GW Bush, or any President because he is the President. You don't have to necessarily agree with the leader to understand that internecine squabbles are more likely to hurt the long-term future. Whether Communism had a long-term future after Stalin is a whole other question, but is ultimately beside the point. The issue isn't so much with Communism as an ideology, but more the nature of groups.
Concluding Point: I am a communist (small "c") and a democrat (small "d"). As I see it, democracy is ultimately about the individual, while communism values the group (or community). We need both. The New Left strayed from the underpinnings of true communism and fought for the rights of the individual in a society that culturally demanded conformity. This was a noble fight that was ultimately won. Unfortunately, the parallel fight - for the economic rights of the people as a whole were never realized: either because the enemy was successful at defending their power, or because the college-student activists didn't have the same commitment to the economic rights of the dispossessed communities that they had for their right to "be themselves" culturally. As long as the left continues to play the anti-communist game of the Right we will never achieve the world we claim to hope to achieve. Equality is not something that can happen through an appeal to individual rights, it must be seen as a good in its own right and something that is separate.
In the end, I think we need to find a way to be self-critical and avoid the mistakes of Communism's past, while at the same time still holding on to the basic tenets of the ideology: true equality, valuing of all members of the community, and an end to exploitation.
On a separate, though related track: I was buying CDs the other night and looking in the Hip-Hop section and was struck by the overwhelming vibe of capitalist accumulation. I know there are conscious rappers out there, but I wondered why there is just so much shit that buys into the system. I'm going to go ahead and postulate that it's because of the relative youth of the art form. Older forms of music had a period where it was cool to be conscious. It seems to me that early rap was more conscious (ie-Public Enemy, KRS-One), but the bulk has been written in the last 10 years (ie-end of the Cold War, distancing from Communism of the Left, etc.) and looking at all forms of music it mostly seems that there's a lot of stupid, egotistical, masturbatory crap.
Waiting for the world to get its collective, revolutionary-self together,
DJO
2 comments:
Interesting. I've not heard anyone defend Communism recently. I thought Socialism, an economic system, paired with Democracy, a political system was the way to go. I really can't think of anyone I know who espouses Communism. Maybe I'm missing something.
BTW: The left is pathetic.
I probably am the wrong person to represent communism. Among other lapses, I've never read Capital (though I have read the Communist Manifesto). I subscribe to Dissent (which is Socialist-Democratic) and I agree with a lot that's there, though it often seems that Social-Democrats tend to want to keep the system as it stands, basically, but just redistribute the wealth somewhat more. The problem I have is that this ends up maintaining the systems of exploitation that are inherent in capitalistic enterprise. I'd rather see us rethink our social relations and have a communistic economy and democratic politics (little c/little d). It's probably pie-in-the-sky, but the point I've been trying to make in the series of posts on this topic has been that the Left needs, desperately, to hold on to its ideals, even if they are idealistic. Otherwise, we are constantly negotiating with the Right from a position of weakness and compromise that the Right refuses to acknowledge (witness President Obama) .
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