Re: [Marxism] Frank Furedi on the Left: the Left is Right

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

Jurriaan Bendien wrote:
> Paul Flewers wrote:
>
> When one reads Frank F and his pals, one is left wondering just what
> they want. They lash out at everything whilst saying nothing about what
> sort of society they want to see. Rabbiting on about the need to realise
> human potential is pretty meaningless when nothing positive is ever
> stated. You want to see total abstractions, just go to the Spiked website.
>
> Reply:
>
> Whatever one may think about it, I think if you read their publications,
> it's quite clear what they want, and I think Frank also makes that quite
> clear: a defence of Enlightenment values; strong, self-acting
> individuals not bamboozled by propaganda about all that they cannot be,
> achieve or do; and an experiential approach to living life which
> problematizes aspects of human subjectivity and the way people really
> relate, rather than a passive, contemplative approach which focuses on
> unchangeable "objective realities". When I spoke to an ex-RCP member in
> Britain last year, he emphasized that there was no point in formal
> political organisation, since, under current conditions, either nothing
> much could be achieved by it, or things could be achieved equally well
> without it. The implication of all this is really that a political
> practice which is not personally fulfilling or does not realize personal
> potentials, is not worth engaging in. Thus, if upholding a doctrine
> which is divorced from real life cramps personal development, it is the
> doctrine that ought to be looked at. Implicitly also, the idea seems to
> be that Leftwing thought is mainly reactive to, and remains trapped
> within, the parameters of the dominant ideologies, and hence cannot
> really be radicalizing; the Left lost the ideological battle, by failing
> to engage in it, clinging instead to sentimentally cherished dogmas of
> the past.
The problem is, however, that the political practice of the former
leading lights of the RCP leads them into full-blooded support for some
of the most blatant excesses of capitalism - and into direct alliance
with some of the most reactionary elements of the modern capitalist
class. I fail to see what is particularly liberating or enlightening
about any of this. To me it looks like total capitulation to the TINA
ideology.

Einde O'Callaghan


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