What is Left?
Sarge’s assessment of Sontag, while it may be accurate in its particulars (I wouldn’t know, I don’t know a thing about her), saddens me in that it points up the degree to which the political spectrum has shrunk in this country. Sarge is no doubt joined by millions of others in this country who do not, in any practical sense, draw any distinction between those who have explored collectivist approaches and those who sought to use collectivist ideology to mask their fascistic intentions.
Though Sarge is, as he says, aware of the distinction, I think he makes a conscious choice to ignore it in the service of his disdain for Sontag, a disdain that is reflective of the general trend in the popular perception of what is and is not appropriate in American political thought.
Everything even a notch to the left of “center” (whatever that is) is lumped in together and presumed to be worthy of scorn, if for no other reason than the fact that some on the left once allowed themselves to be naive enough to sympathize with what turned out to be horrible regimes (Sarge will, of course, be more than happy to provide a long list of other reasons to heap scorn on the left, but he didn’t need them to establish his impressions of Sontag so we can leave them alone for the moment).
Of course, some on the left, maybe even most, recognized the communist regimes for what they were from the very outset. What-is-more, the American right has provided a far greater bounty of aid and comfort to the enemies of freedom around the world then the left was ever capable of mustering. What did the American left ever do for Castro, when compared with what the right did for Seko, Noriega, Pinochet, Suharto, Marcos, Duvallier, Doe, Papadopoulos, and so on and so on.
But somehow here we are, at a time in history when an entire spectrum of political thought, one closely tied to to Judeo-Christian teachings regarding community, faith, and freedom, can be so easily dismissed from the national discourse. If social security dies in the coming months it will be in part because just the whiff of “socialism” is enough to kill almost anything.
Of course, social security has nothing to do with socialism. Its not a ponzi scheme, its insurance. Insurance happens to be one of the most crucial components of the free market system, perhaps equaled only by the combination of capital in corporations in terms of its importance in establishing the world of plenty that we all enjoy today. Without insurance, capitalism would be impossible. Once we have acknowledged that insurance is good and necessary then all that is left is to condemn social security because it is an insurance system administrated by the government.
When, I wonder, did we come to convince ourselves that our government, a government for the people, by the people, is inherently evil? Is not this hatred of our democratically elected government the worst kind of anti-Americanism possible? Is there any more elitist position than a reflexive condemnation of anything that is undertaken by a government of duly elected representatives of the people?
More later.
