LEFTISM AND LIBERALISM
The
two main failed and exhausted means or approaches towards change
in recent times have been liberalism and leftism.
What
really remains to be said about the liberal or reform outlook?
It’s an endless masochism, time and energy wasted in
pursuit of negligible crumbs, while society and the biosphere
become evermore impoverished and ruined. Liberals of all parties,
and including virtually every pacifist, continue in denial as to
the deepening crisis everywhere. Some of them will apparently
never wake up to the depth and scope of what is wrong. Faithful
voters and recyclers, they cling to the palpably false claim that
an all- destructive system can somehow be redeemed, can somehow
serve life.
As for the Left, where it can be distinguished
from liberalism, we find it hard to imagine a more discredited,
dead-end. It has failed universally in terms of the individual
and in terms of nature. It is an albatross to be thrown off.
Basically
it appears in two forms. The first is the more overtly reformist,
in which more “radical” goals are hidden from the
“masses” it seeks to attract. Manipulation and lack
of transparency (e.g. the Green Party) define this brand of
Leftism. The overtly “radical” form is straight- up
authoritarianism and has proven so in every instance in history.
The so- called “small c” communists will never escape
this baggage, rejected everywhere. Leftism approaches extinction,
the sooner the better.
Insofar as anarchists cling to the left and define themselves in its terms (e.g. anarcho-syndicalists) they will go nowhere. Technology, production, hierarchy, government, ecological destruction, and ideas like “progress” continue to go unquestioned by most who would identify with the left. In U.S history, the Left, even in its best opportunities, failed miserably and current prospects are even worse now that its record is known to all. Everyone knows something different is needed.
(Taken from 'Green Anarchy Primer', see “Pamphlets” page on this site)