The Task of Today
Just some thoughts on politics, truth, and the tasks moving forward. Kicking off with two neat quotes:
Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow. Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness... The great work of the present for every man, and every organization of men, who would improve social conditions, is the work of education — the propagation of ideas. It is only as it aids this that anything else can avail.
And:
It is becoming clearer every day that independent, thinking people must seek out a new centre. I am convinced that our plan would satisfy a real need and real needs must be satisfied in reality... Our programme must be: the reform of consciousness not through dogmas but by analyzing mystical consciousness obscure to itself... We are therefore in a position to sum up the credo of our journal in a single word: the self-clarification (critical philosophy) of the struggles and wishes of the age. This is a task for the world and for us. It can succeed only as the product of united efforts.
The first quote is from the conclusion of Henry George's Social Problems and the second from Marx's Letter to Arnold Ruge. I think the sentiment in both is a useful guide: we need to ground our actions in reality, and reality must be understood through some form of critical analysis.
So, particularly in a time when so many seem unhindered by their detachment from reality, there is a comfort in the idea that truth wins out. It's not inevitable or anything, but ultimately I think the ideas of Trump and co simply don't work because they're not attached to reality. Trump can talk about how other nations pay tariffs but that simply isn't true from a basic transactional perspective or broader economics perspective. You can blame Haitians for why your pet disappeared, but that won't stop it from happening again.
It's also why I hesitate when people suggest Democrats throw away truth because it "doesn't matter." If you base a political movement on falsehood, even in success you will fail. Whereas truth may be difficult to deal with, it may offer no easy solutions, but it is something worth toiling for.
But dogmas abound aplenty on the left (just as they do on the right). "Free trade" remains a dirty word and protectionism popular despite its deleterious effects on the broad masses and it's giveaways to local capitalists. NIMBYism remains rampant and rent control the favoured solution, despite study after study after study showing how it can backfire tremendously. (St Paul's rent control saw a mass transfer of wealth from poor minorities to richer whites, as just one example). Mark Fisher's regularly recommended Capitalist Realism is a litany of blinkered thinking where the British Museum is the worst example of commodification, the NHS is the example of markets gone wrong ("market Stalinism" of all things!), and kids playing PlayStation is proof of the ever more insidious mechanisms of control.
George puts onto us an obligation as citizens:
I ask no one who may read this book to accept my views. I ask him to think for himself. Whoever, laying aside prejudice and self-interest, will honestly and carefully make up his own mind as to the causes and the cure of the social evils that are so apparent, does, in that, the most important thing in his power toward their removal. This primary obligation devolves upon us individually, as citizens and as men. Whatever else we may be able to do, this must come first. For "if the blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the ditch."
I just don't think we are going to be able to dig ourselves out of this hole if we don't question these dogmas of the Left. I'm just worried the next Democratic administration is gonna fuck around with Biden 2.0 tariffs, poorly targeted student debt relief and capital gains taxes rather than policies I think - and that I think the evidence supports - would make a real and substantial difference.
I'll conclude with Henry George's own final words, etched onto his gravestone:
The truth that I have tried to make clear will not find easy acceptance. If that could be, it would have been accepted long ago. If that could be, it would never have been obscured. But it will find friends – those who toil for it; suffer for it; if need be, die for it. This is the power of truth.