CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: The Decline of the Left  Thu Sep 23, 2010 9:10 pm | |
| 'Le Monstre Doux' examines why the political right is ascendent in the West
It is an irony now appreciated across the political spectrum, from the U.S. to Britain and continental Europe, that the global financial and economic crisis has not precipitated a mass shift to the parties of labor, the socialists, communists or center-left social democrats. Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, France and Italy's socialist parties and now, after last weekend's elections, Sweden's egalitarian collectivists can all tell their tales of misery.
But well before the spectacular success of the anti-immigrant far right in the Swedish elections, Raffaele Simone was diagnosing the rotting spiritual and intellectual core of the European left.
The Italian linguist and philosopher's acerbic cultural history of leftism's decline and fall was first published in Italy in 2008 ("Il Mostro Mite: Perché l'Occidente non va a sinistra," or "The Sweet Monster: Why the West is not moving to the left"). Today it is making a huge splash in France after its publication there last week. It features Silvio Berlusconi on the cover under the title "Le Monstre doux: L'Occident vire-t-il a droite?" ("The Sweet Monster: Is the West veering to the right?").
Mr. Simone analyzes why the left in Europe and beyond has repeatedly lost the long-term battle of ideas and ballot boxes since the 1980s, ceding the moral and political high ground to what he calls the new right (the "sweet monster") and increasingly, the extreme right.
The book traces the left's problems back to its collective refusal to properly disassociate itself from communism, as well as its more recent failure to adapt to the contemporary world of consumption, individualism, globalization and new media. Mr. Simone argues that one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the left is its forfeiture of the increasingly frenzied public debate surrounding immigration: it has not been able to quell racism while assuring voters of the safety and security of borders, leaving it to the right to exploit this fertile territory.
Mr. Simone is especially strong on the left's accommodations with Islamism, seeing no common cause with regimes and world-views that are opposed to values of freedom of expression, sexual equality, and secularism. He rails against leftist anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism, the reflexive state interventionism of socialist planners, kneejerk demonization of the market, and "dangerous sympathies" extended toward dictatorial regimes such as Fidel Castro's Cuba and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. But he goes further and says even the non-communist left is sitting on a set of ideas that is "on the edge of bankruptcy."
Shockingly for left-wing loyalists, the critique has come not from a right-wing polemicist, but a respected intellectual from the Italian left who is alarmed to see Europe's political map tilting right, with only Greece, Spain and Cyprus electing governments that are not either on the right or dependent on support from the far right.
But instead of lashing out at the "fascist" right, Mr. Simone calls instead for the left to examine its conscience. "Since the 1980s, the list of radical changes that the leaders of the left have not understood is staggering," he says.
"Many of them resisted the idea of European unification—a great project that had its origin within their ranks—then criticized German reunification after the fall of the wall.
"They were opposed for a long time and very strongly to the ecological critique of productivity without limits, which could have aided them. They have denied the appearance of an ethnic factor in the political sphere. Until recently they refused to discuss mass immigration and clandestine immigrants, showing themselves to be lax on these questions.
"As defenders of secularism, they have not been clear in their criticism of radical Islam, and on questions such as the wearing of the veil and the visibility of religious signs. They have shown the same blindness faced with urban crime and insecurity, considering only its causes and not its effects." The left, in short, has failed to understand the great "civilizational shift" of our times.
The picture Mr. Simone paints of contemporary Western society—which he says is more of a "natural" fit with the new right and its values that encourage consumption, individualism, profit and pleasure—is not a pretty one. He decries the omnipresence of the mass media, the screen (computers, televisions, iPads, and the rest) and the culture of entertainment.
He abhors the worship of youth and the fear of aging, the proliferation of plastic surgery, and interestingly for the vacation-loving French and Italians, the denigration of work.
"Work, more and more devalued, [has] becomes secondary in the empire of distraction and fun. What is important is free time, weekends, 'ponts' [the French penchant for taking "bridges" or extra days between a public holiday and a weekend] holidays, outings, cable TV channels, nude TV presenters (and not only on Berlusconi's television channels), video games, celebrity shows, screens everywhere."
Amid his jeremiads against infantilized society of stars, firm young bodies and blind consumption, Mr. Simone calls on the left to take responsibility for its shortcomings. "They [the left's leadership] obstinately refuse to see the aging of the population and as in France, refuse to evolve on the question of retirement. They have abandoned their defense of workers and salaried employees to the unions and have nothing anymore [that resembles] popular parties. "They have not understood the growing power of emerging nations, such as China, India and Brazil, who are learning to dominate the world. They have not learned much from new youth cultures, that are hedonist and individualist…and neither have they learned much from the incredible growth of mass media, the power of television, the internet and the online world. That is a lot.
"And if we add up all these blunders, we see well that they have ignored how in aging European populations, modernity has generated a worrying and chaotic jumble of threats and fears to which only the right and the extreme right seems today to be able to respond to. While the left, if it had been listening to ordinary people, would have made this one of its missions."
It is a harsh report card for a political and ideological force that Simone says no longer has a grand plan "equal to the times," and has become weak, minimalist, or mired in the petty politics of identity, minorities and victimhood.
The next generation of leaders on the left could do worse than act upon some of the prescriptions proffered by this passionate reformist within its ranks.
ANCAPS: ANARCHO-CAPITALISTS |
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