What's your prime focus as a leftist?

This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 years ago by Billy_T.

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November 9, 2019 at 8:32 am #107932

Billy_T
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One thing that stands out for me (in a highly positive way) about this little group of Internet refugees . . . There is no litmus test for being a leftist here.

I like that.

But that absence doesn’t alter the fact that each of us likely has a certain focus, a certain area of interest, that may not necessarily sync up with others here, per se, and that’s considered kewl by all in sundry. Again, I like that.

So, I wanted to see if we could have a thread about those different areas of interests, the whys and wherefores, etc. etc. Not so much a “What kind of leftist are you?” thingy, and definitely not “What color is your parachute?”. But your priorities, your chief concerns, and the flip-side of that . . . the things you really couldn’t care less about.

For me, personally, if I had to choose just one thing as a foundation, a ground, a starting point for being a leftist, it’s that we’re egalitarians. That, in my view, isn’t one of those specific areas of concern. That’s pretty much the door we all step through on our way to this or that priority, goal, strategy, etc. etc. It starts there. I think it’s safe to say it’s a given.

But once through the door, the diversity of what drives us or triggers us is diverse.

Thoughts, life-stories, profound reflections and comedy routines are all welcome.

November 9, 2019 at 11:41 am #107945

zn
Moderator

I would love to dive into this but that would take time I don’t have right now. So I look forward to this thread developing and me finding time to toss in a coupla pennies of my own.

November 9, 2019 at 2:12 pm #107947
nittany ram
Moderator
What draws me to the left is my dislike of inequality, exclusion, etc.

I reject the pervasive idea that the rich are deserving of their wealth just as the poor are deserving of their lack of wealth, as if the factors that contribute to wealth or poverty are inherent in the person and not a product of an exclusionary system of institutionalized oppression, inequality, bigotry, etc.

Ultimately I want to see a government and an economic system that serves everyone equally. How that happens doesn’t matter to me, whether it’s through some form of socialism or an attenuated capitalist system with strong social protections.

Although it’s not exclusively a leftist principle, protecting the environment is another priority. I want to reverse climate change and protect the remaining wild areas of the planet. I want the creation of government agencies that are tasked with developing clean renewable energy sources and improved agriculture/crop technologies. I’d also like to see legislation and policies based on evidence and scientific principles instead of ideology.

Ok, so now this has moved from why I’m a leftist to a wish list (what’s a commie without a manifesto?) so I’ll end this here.
- This reply was modified 5 years ago by nittany ram.
November 9, 2019 at 5:08 pm #107951

Billy_T
Participant

Thanks ZN and Nittany for weighing in here.

The environment and inequality were and are key for me as well. I think I’ve always “naturally” been a Green, and couldn’t understand, even as a little kid, why we allowed mass pollution pretty much everywhere. It made no sense to me then, and it still doesn’t.

I’m not religious — my break with religion was probably my first rebellion in life (roughly, age nine) — but if there’s anything sacred to me, it’s the earth.

Anyway, even when I was apolitical, and didn’t care at all about the usual goings on in American politics, the environment was always a passion. As I got older, however, rampant inequality triggered me, and then I got a concrete taste of it firsthand. I was homeless for a bit when I went back to school to get a Masters. The oddest of times for this, perhaps, it being the Go Go 80s, and me taking classes like French Literature: Existentialism and Alienation . . .

Today? I think my focus is more on the Big Picture, like the philosophy of socialism with an anarchist tilt. That and broad critiques of capitalism itself, in any and all forms. I suppose I’m less interested in the various factions that make up the head, arms and legs of the capitalist system, and more in how they all work together to kill the planet and generate inequality. I don’t think we can get to where we want to go as a society by lopping off parts. In my view, to change metaphors, we need to tear it all down, root, trunk and branch. It all needs to go, as far as I’m concerned . . . . replaced with full democracy, including the economy, from the ground up.

November 9, 2019 at 9:27 pm #107955

Billy_T
Participant

November 10, 2019 at 10:47 am #107963

Billy_T
Participant

Another angle here . . . which has always been among the biggest hurdles for leftists, IMO.

How to achieve the kind of society we pretty much all want . . . with small variations here and there.

???

Mentioned before, but there’s still the old battle, in new forms, between those who believe we have to control “the state” in order to get rid of it, and those who want to skip right over that “stage” and create a non-state society right off the bat.

Of course, not every leftist wants to end up there, either. Some leftists are fine with a different end-point that includes a strong state. Some leftists would be happy with a social democracy, rather than democratic or libertarian or anarchist-socialism. Some leftists would argue that what others see as “social democracy” is really democratic socialism already.

But whatever our desires and hoped-for end-points, the major hurdle has always been how to get there. This is one of my many weaknesses, in that I have no idea. I’m just not good at figuring out the mechanics of the road there, though I have some ideas. My thing has always been more in the “vision” area . . . perhaps because of my background as an artist, poet and wannabe novelist. I’m not an engineer.

The left, in my view, needs both and far more . . . We need visionaries and the nuts and bolts folks who can figure out concrete steps to make those visions come true. I think the vast majority of leftists — and this goes back nearly 400 years — want us to get to the promised land non-violently and through democratic means.

The trick is how.

???

And those various concerns and things we don’t really care about matter in the above too.

Again, your thoughts, etc. etc. are more than welcome.

November 12, 2019 at 8:59 pm #108058

wv
Participant

I tend to think of “wisdom” as being one part Knowledge and one part Compassion. Gotta have both, or it aint wisdom.
Critical-thinking/learning/science plus powerful ‘caring/empathy’ for the Biosphere (not just human-life, but all life)

So where would those two prongs (Knowledge and Caring) lead?

Well it seems to me they would lead…left. I dont know where else they could lead.

At any rate, the most useful-and-simple model of ‘caring/knowledge’ that I know of is “Intersectional Politics” — race,class,gender. Or what should probly be called “solidarity politics.”

Enviro-Race-Class-Gender would probly be the four pillars.

w
v
“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness–that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what–at last–I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.”
B.Russell

November 14, 2019 at 9:37 am #108102

Billy_T
Participant

Great quote from Bertrand. An extremely important antiwar and humanitarian voice, as well as being an amazing mathematician.

I haven’t read any bios of him, but over years have gathered that he also had a true sense of humility. The much younger Wittgenstein floored him with his brilliance, and if memory serves, he had no problem acknowledging his superiority in matters of math and logic.

That’s pretty rare when it comes to famous people, including famous intellectuals.

Anyway, knowledge and compassion equals wisdom. I like that. My own bias is that the left attracts that combo more than any other part of the spectrum. I’d also add “creativity.” Yes, the center and right have their artists too. But it seems that “creatives” are pulled more often to left of center views.

Knowledge, compassion (wisdom) and the arts. The trifecta, in no particular order, for me.
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