A lot of the western “left” has a fetish with defeat and struggle. The moment the oppressed take things into their own hands, make advances never seen before, overthrow their oppressor, and start rebuilding post-war, the western left tends to stop giving a shit and abandon what’s now has “lost its charm”.
That’s why critical support for AES is so low in the western left. I think it has its roots in orientalist thinking. Poor, oppressed, and revolutionary people from the global south driven into martyrdom fits their narrative, anything else is too much reality to deal with. They project onto these conflicts their desired aesthetics and what they deem a “cultured” theoretical understanding of global systems.
But dialectical thinking doesn’t stop at rallies and symbolic pins, flags, posters and patches. It also means accepting the material actions being taken to achieve that. Sure, it might conflict with their ideal aesthetics. But they can’t get past the disappointment. Instead, they take the disappointment as a sign of some kind of moral high ground, which is just blatant orientalism.
A lot of the western “left” has a fetish with defeat and struggle. The moment the oppressed take things into their own hands, make advances never seen before, overthrow their oppressor, and start rebuilding post-war, the western left tends to stop giving a shit and abandon what’s now has “lost its charm”.
I imagine for many western “leftists” in these last few days, you can see the moment that they turned from “Poor Palestinians :( being oppressed by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, I support their struggles and protests, we need to find a solution, let’s go BDS!” defeat fetishism, looking on with concealed glee as Palestinians martyred themselves in relatively non-violent protests, and turned to “Okay, the unspeakable violence of Gazans towards Israeli civilians has GOT TO STOP. We need a ceasefire now, or the Gazans will get what’s coming to them!”
An evergreen quote from MLK: "First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”
A lot of the western “left” has a fetish with defeat and struggle. The moment the oppressed take things into their own hands, make advances never seen before, overthrow their oppressor, and start rebuilding post-war, the western left tends to stop giving a shit and abandon what’s now has “lost its charm”.
That’s why critical support for AES is so low in the western left. I think it has its roots in orientalist thinking. Poor, oppressed, and revolutionary people from the global south driven into martyrdom fits their narrative, anything else is too much reality to deal with. They project onto these conflicts their desired aesthetics and what they deem a “cultured” theoretical understanding of global systems.
But dialectical thinking doesn’t stop at rallies and symbolic pins, flags, posters and patches. It also means accepting the material actions being taken to achieve that. Sure, it might conflict with their ideal aesthetics. But they can’t get past the disappointment. Instead, they take the disappointment as a sign of some kind of moral high ground, which is just blatant orientalism.
I imagine for many western “leftists” in these last few days, you can see the moment that they turned from “Poor Palestinians :( being oppressed by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, I support their struggles and protests, we need to find a solution, let’s go BDS!” defeat fetishism, looking on with concealed glee as Palestinians martyred themselves in relatively non-violent protests, and turned to “Okay, the unspeakable violence of Gazans towards Israeli civilians has GOT TO STOP. We need a ceasefire now, or the Gazans will get what’s coming to them!”
An evergreen quote from MLK: "First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”
You are absolutely correct.