Re: [Marxism] 'Left' Obamites Prefer Kool-Aid to Struggle

[Gary MacLennan <gary.maclennan1@xxxxxxxxx>]

First a request for a pardon for interrupting this dialog but it does
impinge on what I termed the dialectics of disillusionment which long ago I
said would inevitably set in after an Obama victory.

First all sides seem to admit that there is a general feeling of
disappointment.  Mark phrases this as the hope-for-change-tank running out
of fuel.  He thinks that Obama can somehow refuel it.  Artesian wants to
know how.  I myself think in terms of you can fool all the people some of
the time....

The key metaphor here is of Obama as a salesperson.  Certainly he sold
himself and his party and around the world millions have been chanting "Yes
we can..." The students I teach are from all corners of the world and to a
person they are Obamaites. So in terms of the metaphor they too have
"bought" Obama's message of hope for change.
Now it is true that the Left Punditocracy, of which Mark is of course a
member if a somewhat dissatisfied one, was and is critical of Obama.  We
have not bought the message. As Joaquin tirelessly reminded us Obama is a
bourgeois politician and that sets iron parameters around what we will get
from him.  So for me not buying the Obama message is a source of pride, but
not I emphasize a source of self-satisfaction.

But the problem is the isolation of the left or as Mark puts it no one
appears to be listening to us. Do I have to say that isolation does not mean
necessarily that we are wrong in our analysis?

However let us return to the metaphor of the salesman.  Can Obama dip back
into his suitcase and bring out a magical new product which all will
purchase again?  Can he find some marvellous cloth which only fools or those
unfit for office cannot see?  To think that he can is surely to be convinced
of the intrinsic stupidity of the working class. It is also to be
essentially idealist where material and political reality is reduced to the
dialectics of spin or propaganda.

It is also to fall into the trap of hoping for salvation from above.
Somehow or other a bourgeois will emerge who will save us all.  Not going to
happen.  We are in a desperate situation which will get worse now.
Salvation will only come from the working class. I say this from Australia
the land of one of the most moderate working classes every to take the
stage.  I have used other words to describe the proletariat here.  When in
despair the words "stupid and cowardly" have been uttered by me.
Nevertheless the working class is the only place where the movement for
emancipation will come from.

So my take on this is that we should have no truck at all with anything that
would cause people to have illusions in Obama. This is something that the
working class seemingly has to go through to learn a very bitter lesson.  We
should be there when the class finally realises that Obama is part of  the
problem and no way part of the solution.  We should eschew the temptation to
say "I told you so" but to work with disillusioned to help them have hope in
themselves and not some smooth talking servant of the ruling class.

That is not to say of course that those of us in the Left punditocracy
cannot have a few words among ourselves about the Obama phenomenon and those
of us who were less than correctly critical.....

regards

Gary
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