Re: <nettime> Identity and difference

Alexander addresses me with an injunction and second-guesses my answer: "What is your tactic? Further excuses for not dealing with the crisis of the left?"

My answer is that I do not have the slightest idea, and that anyone who claims to have one is either a liar, fool, or utopian dictator. And insofar as utopian dictatorship is concerned, Alexander espouses a "politico-theological project", a title that has all my alarm bells going.

Indeed, Alexander reduces the complexity of the world to a sterile, doctrinal dialectic that denies the sophistication of reality.

I regret being so disobliging, but in my opinion Alexander's prose is intellectual, political and literary logorrhoea, in no way conducive to dealing constructively with the issues at hand.

Joseph Rabie.

Le 26 oct. 2018 à 20:33, Alexander Bard <bardissimo@gmail.com> a écrit :

Dear Joseph

Yes, I said I made a grotesque simplification. That was my point. What else is new? Have I claimed anything else?
If we don't start to see the difference between a victimhood-driven and a hero-driven left, then how are we going to spot our own weaknesses? Where do you start yourself?
Because I'm one of many many leftists who return to Marx these days since Identity Politics has become nothing but an endless tirade of complaints with no creative solutions or constructive routes up and out in sight. It really is Rousseau and his tabula rasa idea of humanity all over again. Moralism instead of pragmatism. And it has been growing since the 1970's and now dominates whatever leftist social media we still have.
That's not Marxism. That's a parody of Marxism. Celebrating the lumpen proletariat instead of heading directly for what proletarian heroism could be in the 21st century. No wonder that 95% of social crowdfunding goes into the pockets of the libertarian right these days. Leftists do not even support each other any longer. At least not for more than three days.
What is your own answer? What ties us together? Only banal hatred of Trump, or a true vision for the future, a genuine politico-theological project that get people going?
Sometimes simplifications do the job. What is your tactic? Further excuses for not dealing with the crisis of the left?

Best intentions
Alexander Bard

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