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Title: Leftism Author: Último Reducto Date: 2007 Language: en Topics: anti-technology, post-leftism, post-left, anti-civ, anti-civilisation, anti-civilization Source: Retrieved on 12th May 2015 from http://www.wildism.org/lib/item/903453d1/ Notes: 1. Perhaps "leftism" is not the most appropriate term to express what Último Reducto refers to here. Everyone has some intuitive notion of what "leftism" is, but often these notions vary considerably from one individual to another and few are able to correctly and consistently explain their idea of "leftism." Furthermore, like a loony bin (and not by coincidence), ni están todos los que son, ni son todos los que están [Translator's note: This is a difficult-to-translate Spanish proverb that references populations of people in insane asylums. It is used to mean that a given set of elements is wrong, because in some cases some elements that are included aren't correct and some other elements that are correct are left out.] (certain incomplete notions or definitions, at least, do not cover all the forms of leftism really existing -for example, they consider leftism to by only Marxism-Leninism, or only anarcho-syndicalism, or only the "antagonist" subculture, etc.- and certain overreaching and vague notions and definitions might include currents that are not, in reality, really leftists -for example, certain kinds of Islamism-). All this complicates the definition and interpretation of the concept to which Último Reducto is referring to with the term "leftism." However, the point here is trying to express, clarify and grasp the concept without getting lost in discussions about what to call it. Let each denominate the term as he is best willing and able.
Último Reducto regards as "leftism" any current or social tendency that
is based on the following values: equality, indiscriminate solidarity,
compassion toward alleged groups of alleged victims (with these or other
names as "social justice," "cooperation," "brotherhood," "universal
love," "peace," etc.).3
In general, the concept of leftism includes almost any ostensibly
critical current that in reality doesn't try to combat modern society,
but to "improve it."4 Leftism, usually, does not try to end
techno-industrial society, but only tries to make it meet the above
values. That is, (more) "justice," (more) "equality," (more)
"solidarity," etc. However, there are also radical leftisms that say
they try to combat the system (normally adding the adjective
"capitalistic" and/or "patriarchal"), always doing so on the basis of
those values.
Leftism includes, in general, that which is usually understood as the
left, but not only this. The concept of "the left" is usually almost
synonymous with socialism (in almost all its versions -including
libertarian or anarchist ones-), but there are also non-socialist
"leftisms" (for example, all the currents and humanitarian initiatives
derived exclusively from philosophical liberalism or from Christian
philanthropy -certain foundations, certain charitable organizations,
some missions, etc.-). In fact, at least some of the fundamental values
and ideals of the greater part of what is today called "the right" are
basically the same as those of what is called "the left."
Leftism, in particular, includes all the struggles and initiatives,
governmental or otherwise, for the equality and the rights of alleged
groups of the so-called "oppressed" ("anti-patriarchalism" in general
and feminism in particular, gay "liberation," anti-racism, solidarity
with immigrants, helping the poor, initiatives for the social
integration of the marginalized and excluded, defense of the
working-class, of the unemployed, of the disabled, of the animals,
etc.), in favor of development ("sustainable," they tend to add), of
justice, of peace, of "freedoms" and "rights" and of democracy in
general (struggles for the redistribution of wealth, currents favorable
to the "normalization" of drugs or "sexual liberation," anti-militarism,
pacifism, social "ecology" -that current of so-called environmentalists
who focus primarily on purely social matters, prioritizing them over
real ecological problems- and environmentalism -those currents whose
real function is to maintain an environment habitable enough so the
human population can continue successfully fulfilling the demands of
techno-industrial society-, anti-capitalism, etc.). It includes, then,
all the practices of those things described as "social movements,"
"anti-establishment," "adversarial," "counter-cultural," etc. as well as
the vast majority of NGOs, and any initiative, official or not, based on
promoting equality, (indiscriminate) solidarity and the defense of
alleged victims and helpless people (which today includes a good part of
the activities of governments and institutions).
It is usually believed that "progressivism" and "leftism" are
synonymous, and certainly this is usually the case, but not always. If
the idea of progress5 that progressivism defends is based on the
increase of equality, solidarity (beyond the natural social reference
group constituted by close friends or relatives) and defense of supposed
victims and helpless people, which is usually precisely the notion of
progress in almost all of contemporary progressivism, then this
progressivism is leftism. But not all progressivism has this
humanitarian idea of progress: nineteenth-century colonialism, for
example, used for the justification of its atrocities another, less
"delicate" idea of progress, not compatible with leftist progressivism.
On the other hand, although leftism is usually openly progressivist,
there are also minority leftist currents ostensibly contrary to
progress, i.e., ostensibly not progressives.6
Nowadays, and for at least a decade,7 the dominant ideology in
techno-industrial society is leftist. Institutions and the mass media
are based on the fundamental leftist values of equality,
(indiscriminate) solidarity and victimism, and they transmit and put
into practice these values, supporting and encouraging proposals that
were formerly defended exclusively by minority sectors (the left wing of
a few years ago). It is enough to observe institutional propaganda, the
news, mass forms of entertainment and art, etc., to notice it. As a
result, the general population has more or less assumed the leftist
values of this propaganda.
Nevertheless, many people are sure that these leftist values are, not
only a minority view, but also contrary to those of modern society,
which they consider unsupportive or a promoter of inequality. This
belief is itself a fundamental part of leftism, justifying and promoting
it.
All who really want to aspire to effectively combat the
techno-industrial system should reject leftism, because:
Equality and solidarity with individuals and groups who are not close
friends or family, and helping alleged victims and helpless people, is
essential to avoid conflicts, tensions and anti-social behaviors
contrary to the efficient functioning of the social machinery. These
values are necessary for the maintenance of the cohesion of
techno-industrial society and to avoid its disintegration and
disorganization. By assuming them as their own and promoting them,
leftists help the system.
Leftism is based, therefore, on values that are essential for
techno-industrial society. As a result, what leftism questions is not
the system itself, but only the instances during which, according to
leftists, the system does not sufficiently live up to its values and
therefore pursue the ends they imply. So, the effect of leftism is not
the end of the system, but the "perfection of it," so that it will run
more efficiently. Consequently, leftism is inevitably reformist and
never really revolutionary. When leftism does not recognize itself as
reformist and presents itself as "revolutionary," it is
pseudo-revolutionary (which is common in the more radical forms of
leftism).
Leftism is a mechanism of alarm, auto-repair, auto-maintenance, and
auto-catalysis for the functioning and development of the
techno-industrial system. With its pseudo-critique, leftism acts as an
alarm mechanism that points out the weak points, the contradictions, the
limits, the failures, etc., of the system. And with its proposals favors
its repair and readjustment, promoting "improvements" or, at least,
palliatives, actions that serve to reduce the social, psychological and
ecological tensions that can hinder the maintenance, functioning and
development of techno-industrial society. Leftism lubricates the social
machinery instead of destroying it.
With its proposals, activism, groups, environments, aesthetic,
paraphernalia, ideology, etc., seemingly critical, combative, rebellious
and radical, it offers artificial substitutes, innocuous to
techno-industrial society, for certain tendencies and natural human
psychological needs incompatible with the maintenance and development of
the system (for example, it replaces the natural human sociability that
demands, in order to be fully satisfied, that groups social groups are
small-scale -groups in which all members are able to meet and interact
directly with each other-, with the feeling of belonging to large
organizations and/or to leftist environments and subgroups). It also
redirects and makes harmless for the system certain impulses and
reactions which, if expressed spontaneously, may be harmful or even
destructive for the structure and functioning of techno-industrial
society (for example, leftist activism serves to relieve the hostility
caused by chronic frustration generated by the techno-industrial way of
life, so that it will not really and seriously damage the functioning
and structure of the system). Thus, leftism, with its proposals, offers
to individuals a false illusion that embracing it will lead to acting
naturally and freely within techno-industrial society, and with its
practices it offers them the impression, no less false, of being rebels.
It functions, therefore, also as a psychological escape valve for the
system.
Moreover, because of its role as a psychological escape valve and its
appearance, often, of being pseudo-critical and pseudo-revolutionary,
leftism acts as a trap that attracts truly critical and potentially
revolutionary people and groups, incapacitating them and transforming
them into leftists in turn. Leftist environments and currents make use
of politically-correct oversocialization (taboos and dogmas) to imprison
within its leftist ideological and psychological frames the natural,
original, and potentially revolutionary ideas, values, motivations,
ends, etc., of many of those that contact them. This way, those who
independently come to feel unhappy with what techno-industrial society
is doing with the non-artificial world and with human nature, in their
attempt to contact others with similar concerns, often approach leftist
currents, environments, and groups, since these appear to be critical.
Many become unconsciously and psychologically trapped by these
environments, having established affinities and social-emotional ties
with them, negating the people's capacity for response and criticism,
and, just so, to a greater or lesser extent, tacitly or explicitly, and
willingly or reluctantly, having them abandon and sideline their own
values and original attitudes and adopt leftist values, dogmas, taboos,
discourses, theories, and (sub)culture. And it also works in the
opposite sense: when there are struggles, environments, currents,
theories or initiatives critical of techno-industrial society, foreign
to or little related to leftism in principle, many leftists (especially
the more pseudo-radical type) usually feel attracted to them, invade the
critical environments and struggles, originally outside of leftism,
and/or adopt their discourses as their own, distorting them to ensure
that they conform to the theories and basic values of leftists,
resulting in the conversion to leftism of these struggles or initiatives
that were originally not leftist initiatives, and thus their
deactivation as potentially revolutionary struggles. Leftism, therefore,
also acts as a self-defense mechanism to cancel out rebellious,
dysfunctional and potentially dangerous to the system impulses,
initiatives and attitudes, and to utilize them (by way of psychological
and ideological "jujitsu") in favor of industrial society, integrating
them into leftist environments and currents.
Leftism is a result of alienation, of psychological weakness and
illness, often caused by the conditions of life inherent to
techno-industrial society. Modern technology denies individuals the
possibility of developing and satisfying fully and autonomously their
natural behavioral tendencies, abilities, and needs, i.e., their
liberty, inhibiting and perverting the expression of their nature. It
totally deprives them of the ability to exercise control over the
conditions that affect their own lives and it violates their dignity by
turning them into beings that are helpless and completely dependent on
the system. It forces them to live in unnatural conditions for which
they are not biologically prepared (noise, high population density, fast
pace of life, rapid change in the environment, hyper-artificial
environments, etc.). It regulates and restricts their natural behavior
in many respects. All of this creates psychological distress in many
individuals (low self-esteem and feelings of inferiority, boredom,
frustration, depression, anxiety, anger, emptiness, etc.). And that
discomfort is expressed in the form of victimism, hedonism, hostility,
etc. These feelings and attitudes are common in techno-industrial
society and give rise to various unnatural behaviors. Leftism is one of
these behaviors. Their core values are inspired by feelings of
inferiority, and many of its theories, discourses and activities are
motivated by a lack of self-confidence, hostility, and boredom. And
since leftism in reality favors the development of techno-industrial
society, it acts as a feedback mechanism for alienation and, with it,
for itself.8
Leftist values are contrary to reality, to reason, to truth and to
Nature (human or otherwise). In many cases this is the effect of the
alienation inherent in techno-industrial society in general, and in
leftism in particular, and at the same time acts as a feedback mechanism
for them. The majority of leftist theories are logically, empirically
and philosophically absurd. And basic leftist theory and values, as well
as some others that tend to be associated with leftism, are, at best,
perversions of natural and correct values (for example, indiscriminate
solidarity is a collectivist adulteration of natural solidarity between
friends and family), and, at worst, mere nonsense (relativism, for
example). Leftism necessitates, therefore, that facts be distorted to
fit its theories and its values.
Leftism is a threat to the autonomy of wild Nature, including true human
freedom. By placing equality, indiscriminate solidarity or the defense
of victims above all other values, it neglects, or even despises the
autonomy of the non-artificial -because, in fact, it is incompatible
with these basic leftist values.
[This point is especially aimed at all those who would like to do
something to try to really end the techno-industrial system but, because
they feel a genuine and justified rejection of leftism, they prove to
correctly be very suspicious of the majority of currents ostensibly
critical of the current techno-industrial society].
How must one act with respect to leftism?
Criticize it, revealing what it really is: a deception, a trap, a
mechanism to perpetuate and grow more easily and efficiently the system
itself, a poor substitute for real rebellion and the crazy result of
unnatural conditions inherent to modern life.
But without said criticism becoming a goal in itself. It must only be a
means, a practical requirement, essential nowadays, to try to achieve a
much more important goal: to eliminate the techno-industrial system and
to put an end to the subjugation of wild Nature -internal and external
to human beings- that this inevitably entails.
Avoid falling into the trap. Try to maintain a strict separation from
leftism, its influences, its environments, its values, theories and
speech. And, vice versa, keep leftism away from us; try so that our
values, theories and speeches are not absorbed, perverted or disabled by
leftism.9
Do not be ashamed to have values and ideas that are not leftist. Do not
allow the oversocializing10 reactions, the dogmas and the taboos of the
politically correct leftists influence us. This in turn will help keep
leftist away from our theories, speech, and environments, of our
struggle, avoiding their harmful influence.
Create and spread an ideology truly critical, non-leftist, truly
revolutionary and contrary to the techno-industrial system, to
civilization, and to all forms of social systems that unavoidably
undermine the autonomy of the functioning of non-artificial systems.