Re: [Marxism] Is There a Left Here Left?

[Jeff McFadden <notbourgeois@xxxxxxxxx>]

Speaking as a new member of the list, and as a Marxist
from the upper south, perhaps I can answer some of the
issues raised here. I?m apologizing in advance that
nothing I?ll be writing will be what you want to hear.

There are many, many people in the US looking for
alternatives, but they are so full of Cold War-era/
Reaganist Christian conservative ideology that they
are unable to give a second?s notice to anything to
the left of, say, Richard Nixon.
Simply put, they are frightened. They cannot imagine
that these horrible baby-killing left wingers have
anything at all in common with themselves. They are so
upset to find out that the ?American Dream? is a myth
that they are obsessed with looking for someone to
blame. Strangely enough?.they blame the Left! They are
convinced that ?godless communists? are sending
immigrants as an invasion force to take over America,
that ?Marxists? have taken over the justice system and
are aborting babies and undermining Christian values,
and that this underground commie force is leading a
plot to take prayer out of the public schools, to take
god out of the government, and to take the United
Nations into an evil conspiracy to force socialism
onto the world.
I am not exaggerating at all here. This is what a lot
of people in the Midwest, west, and south sincerely
believe. This is what we are up against. 
The people on the bottom simply do not want to believe
that the myth of upward mobility isn?t true, and to
console themselves they are embracing conspiracy
theories. These are deeply-held beliefs backed up by
church pastors and television evangelists, and they
will not be easy to overcome. 
Most people still insist on believing in the myth of
upward mobility, and can only come to the conclusion
that leftists and Mexicans and Muslims are destroying
?our American way of life.? The problem we face is:
how can we break this bourgeois hegemony? How can we
reach American workers and get them to understand the
reality of society, the reality of class struggle?  
This is what we face on the ground level. This is the
first step we must take.

Jeff McFadden
 
--- Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx wrote:

> 
> <_http://counterpunch.org/wypijewski12102007.html_ 
> (http://counterpunch.org/wypijewski12102007.html) >



      
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