Goonstruck: The Mysterious Mind of Modern Progressives

[Karmadillo]

http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2078-goonstruck-the-mysterious-mind-of-modern-progressives.html

Goonstruck: The Mysterious Mind of Modern Progressives
Written by Chris Floyd
Monday, 24 January 2011 22:51

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All across the blogosphere -- and in those few niches in other media where outright corporate harlotry and hardcore militarism don't yet hold absolute sway -- I see earnest, eager exhortations to our political leaders, urging them to act with wisdom, morality, mercy and justice. I see calls for those in power to think of the future, think of the children, think of the planet, think of the vulnerable, think of the needs and interests of working people. I see vast expenditures of mental and emotional energy devoted to parsing the politics of the high and mighty -- and to devising the best strategies and tactics (especially the oh-so-savvy tactics) for advancing the fortunes of those top dogs whose rhetoric occasionally seems simpatico to the ideals of peace, freedom, equality and human advancement.

There seems to be a widespread, deeply held supposition that politicians – politicians! -- will save us, if we can only put the right ones in charge of the power structure. And behind this supposition there is an unspoken -- and, in many cases, unconscious -- belief in the inherent goodness of this power structure itself. To be sure, it is a goodness that most progressives believe has been lost or diminished, or perhaps not yet realized. But there seem to be few doubts in the ultimate moral efficacy of this power structure, however lost or latent it might be at any given time. It just needs to be guided properly.

All this is very strange to me. I came of age in a time when politicians of every stripe were considered little more than sinister buffoons: gasbags, grifters and gloryhogs in the pay of the rich and powerful -- and in happy thrall to a brutal power structure based on violence, war, corruption and cronyism. We thought this not because we considered ourselves too cool or too hip or too cynical for that establishment drag, man; we thought this because of what we had seen with our own eyes.

We saw people torn from their private lives by an implacable militarist state and forced to kill and die in a savage, pointless imperial war that left millions of innocent people dead. We saw people gunned down in the street or clubbed into bloody goo for peaceful acts of dissent against the power structure. Politicians mouthed witless pieties that no one believed they believed, while behind the scenes elections were fixed (or "ratfucked"), contracts were rigged, laws were laughed at, and rules were broken at every turn. Cities were left to choke and rot; an entire industrial infrastructure was sold off to enrich a tiny, tax-dodging elite feasting on foreign slave labor. The wars went on and on, covertly and overtly; the living standards of working people kept plunging relentlessly; the prisons filled up; the farms went down; torturers, murderers, liars and thieves were applauded to high heaven.

This was the power structure. This is the power structure. This is the same system that bred every politician dancing on top of the greasy pole today. I have lived a politically aware life inside it for more than 45 years. When did it change for the better? When did the courtiers of this system suddenly become vessels of hope and goodness, and not the third-rate time-servers and witless goons they have been from days of yore? Where did today's belief in the power structure's inherent worthiness -- if we can only get a few plucky guys and gals in there to work the gears -- come about? Somewhere along the line, the "progressive left" became imbued with the same worship of power that we are constantly, and rightly, told is a hallmark of the Right.

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[TheKentuckian]

1. Failure to internalize the broken state of most of our political and economic structures

is a form of insanity, stupidity, and/or blindness.

[RKP5637]

2. +1000 +++ n/t

[bluestate10]

8. I admire your tenacity.

But I feel you're wrong. Progressives look to "leaders" to solve problems and create jobs for workers. That view looks past their own power to make permanent change. Progressives rail against corporatists, but somehow don't all see that creating and sustaining small businesses that buy, make and sell their products in the USA can end the hold of corporations on the country. Big corporations are multinational, they go where the money is. When the money no longer is in the USA, neither will corporations. Our leaders won't save us, we must save ourselves by building the society that we envision. I am a moderate and have been aggressive in debates with progressives and some marxists on DU. My fight with the Left is not much about our visions of where society should, the fight is about how we get to the ideal state.

[TheKentuckian]

9. What was it that I am wrong about? Your post does not address mine in a direct sense.

Or are you arguing that our political and economic systems are not broken. If so what do your points have to say to support that argument?

I never mentioned a leader or leaders, my point was the system in which "leaders" operate. Your "fight"is with outcome, otherwise there would be little "fight" with the left. The current systems are not ever going to evolve into something resembling rational use or distribution of resources.

Nor is it about to lead to sane management or our internal and international affairs.

I think most of the preaching along these lines is just to stall and perpetuate the status quo. I'm sure some folks actually by this Iowa Oceanfront property and bridges to nowhere but I think it is mostly right out of the DLC party conversion handbook that plays on the instinct to kick the can.

[truedelphi]

3. K & R. though I want to point out that one thing that has changed -

When I was growing up inside a very corrupt Chicago Daley political machinery, you could tell the corrupt. They had greasy hair, yellow teeth, and said "Deese. And Dem. And Dose."

Now a days, many of the most corrupt among us are charming and fashionable. They have nicely coiffed hair. They speak to people with gracious intonations, and total courtesy.

I think of some of the Board of Elections people I met when trying to deal with Stolen Election issues. Most days, it was hard to figure out who was a bad guy, and who wasn't. All across the board, all the officials were warm and sweet, and simply glowed at me with their "sincerity."

[Fumesucker]

5. Once you've learned to fake sincerity you've got it made..

That's the key to a really successful politician, faking sincerity.

[Fumesucker]

4. Ouch..

That one's gonna' leave a mark..

Recced..

[FiveGoodMen]

6. "supposition that politicians – politicians! -- will save us"

They may never save us, but we can't save ourselves. (Many, many pep talks not withstanding)

Anyone who runs for office is a politician.

Anyone who doesn't has no direct power.

We can tell our elected officials what we want until the cows come home, but if they don't do what we want we're screwed.

The only alternative would be to destroy this political system and set up an alternative one. Assuming that was even possible, what would it be like?

IOW, we have to hope we can find politicians that will represent (not save) us. There really isn't another way of doing it.

[ironrooster]

7. IMO, we need to nuture our "inner" Russians.