The Incoherence of the Left

Many of us have been scratching our heads, wondering at how the Left has succumbed to paranoia, conspiracy theories, and quite simply reactionary attitudes toward issues like human rights and justice which traditionally are issues that they own. From the splenetics of Naomi Klein to Howard Dean, it’s hard to understand what they’re FOR because they simply shout what they’re AGAINST. It’s hard to know what alternative vision they’re offering except what they’re against.

Two recent articles go some distance in explaining. One by lefties and one by someone on the right

The lefties claim that pragmaticism has taken hold of the left, and they’ve coined the term, “activistism” to explain their meaning.

This brave new ideology combines the political illiteracy of hypermediated American culture with all the moral zeal of a 19th-century temperance crusade. In this worldview, all roads lead to more activism and more activists. And the one who acts is righteous. The activistists seem to borrow their philosophy from the factory boss in a Heinrich B?short story who greets his employees each morning with the exhortation “Let’s have some action.” To which the workers obediently reply: “Action will be taken!”

The person on the right claims that liberalism defined itself in terms of an expansive state to eradicate poverty. Once poverty has been eliminated, to eliminate prejudice (ie., racism, etc.). This expansive role has left it rudderless.

Additionally, Frank Furedi argues that the left’s lack of coherence and style of protests also reflects not simply “disenfranchisement,” about which the left constantly complains, but also the “lonely crowd,” which is the experience of a population with little to connect people with one another. In short, to cite Aristotle, we are no longer political animals.

You decide.