Bring It

Another one of history's favorite themes: democracy vs totalitarianism. This one has lain dormant for a while; capitalism defeated communism and history ended, or so the story went. But with Bernie and others talking socialism, the new Cold Warriors have sprung into action, throwing down McCarthyite threats and invoking all the patriotic symbols at their disposal. What has been called the "culture wars" has now morphed into a deeper, hardened conflict best symbolized by the Virus Mask. If you read the subtext in Pompeo's latest speech or Trumps ratcheting rhetoric over China and de-regulation, if you understand the signalling the anti-maskers are doing over liberty and the "deep state", if you feel the tension around confederate monuments being torn down and "law and order" under fire and whiteness and all the rest, you understand very real battle lines are being drawn. Add to this tension a pandemic and economic crash and ecosystems coming apart at the seams...

I find it refreshing that Capital is displaying its profound unease after decades of triumphalist bravado. Because this multiple and ever-expanding crisis has finally forced the much needed confrontation between openly antagonistic forces and the battle is joined. Just as the Empire loves weak states but fears failed states, it also loves weak citizens but fears failed citizens; those unable to form coherent positions, unable to distinguish adversary from enemy, unable to articulate grievances or establish representation.

None of this appeared overnight. The liberal order has been eroding for some time, but at a pace that was made it more difficult to define or describe. Now everything is acclerated, mimicking the climte effects as they begin to cascade. "The worst are filled with passionate intensity..." but they have no plan. The Center cannot hold and "the situation is excellent".

Narrow Tactical Field

In Portland and other cities where BLM protests have continued and escalated, a debate has ensued over the age old, and frankly boring, "diversity of tactics". The "peaceful" protestors just want to demonstrate, ie.. march carrying signs, shouting tired slogans, giving tired speeches etc... The street fighting militants want to smash things, hurl things at police, be all badass in their black hoodies and gas masks. Each faction endlessly performs their role, assumes their identity, believes in their righteousness and correctness. And neither faction has accomplished much of anything.

Would anyone stop to evaluate their progress? Fuck that- grab a sign or grab a brick. These are the limits of the movement imagination, such as it is. "This is what democracy looks like", first as tragedy, then as farce.

The head of the NAACP whines that the radicals are trying to turn "his" protest around policing into an "anti-capitalist" agenda. Being a lover of Capital, he sees no connection. Antifa and Boogaloo Boys and Proud Boys and Black Bloc all dart through the streets smashing windows and setting fires because they hate all authority. Except their own.

The ideological rubble buries everyone involved and no one seems to consider disciplined mass civil disobedience, the one tactic that has actually accomplished a small degree of social change.

Brownshirts

History may not repeat itself but it definitely has some favorite themes it re-visits from time to time. A big favorite is a nation's cleansing of "the enemy within". At his patriotic 4th of July Spectacle, complete with displays of air power, Trump and Co. turned the dial way up on the culture war, but very specifically targeted "the Left". In his version, it is we who are totalitarian and we who wish to revise history. Of course, the whole "cancel culture" absurdity is true, is reactionary, and plays right into the hands of the neo-fascists Trump is dog whistling to. And yes, we would like to revise history curriculum as it is taught in schools so that it more closely reflected empirical research. Let's talk about Andrew Jackson!

But that was all bluster TV shit. The scary, barely veiled threat was actually to Bernie socialists and the movements that are talking about real structural change. History has plenty of examples of this bloody tactic enabling demagogues to hold onto power. And he probably could rouse a little militia of patriot brownshirts to start patrolling the campuses and progressive enclaves. No shortage of deplorables out there. Even the good white citizens of South Dakota who cheered at his race and red baiting had their deplorable on. It is not hard to imagine (read a little Hannah Arendt) these folks scratching their heads a few years from now and asking: How could such horrors have taken place? What the heck got into us?

The signalling Trump (and S.Dakota's perky little governor- keep your eye on that one) did round "desecrating monuments" was particularly pernicious- he is obviously getting desperate and his instinct has always been to go low. But I suspect he is digging a hole he won't get out of. The covid and police shooting took all the wind from his sails. History is also moving in some other directions and rousting the Klan or holding hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities is not really a plan.