I don't think you can overstate, in addition to all the things you've mentioned, the great increase in the enthusiasm and optimism level on the left. the feeling that despite all the talk of Armageddon from the right and, lamentably, the media, (but I repeat myself), there is a sense of a shift toward decency, for lack of a better word, in the national attitude. it reminds me of the feeling of the possibility of a better world that I held so dear in the late 60s and early 70s, when we hippies stoned ourselves into thinking it actually could happen, even in the face of the assassinations and police actions against minorities, and the poor, and anyone not of the rigid, conservative 50s mindset.
Sep 10, 2023·edited Sep 10, 2023Liked by Yastreblyansky
"our social fabric is in tatters"
What the fuck is this mysterious "social fabric" that Allan Bloom and Brooks and all of them have been clucking over and scolding us about for decades? What the fuck are those words supposed to mean?
When I look at America today I see a lot of angry right-wingers and a lot of beleagured left-wingers but beyond that I see a fully functioning society with jobs and schools and doctors and highways and movie theaters and jazz clubs and NASCAR races and ball games, all interacting very smoothly, with people helping each other change their tires on the roadside and subscribing to magazines and giving blood — where exactly is this "tattered fabric"?
Of course it's RELIGIOUS, what they're talking about: it's the absence of the infinitely soothing Sunday morning scene where everyone gathers in their somber coats and presses their hands earnestly into their neighbors'; it's a Norman Rockwell painting or a Reagan movie. It's Disney. It's this stupid "missing element" that's supposed to make a hands-off society perfect, as long as everyone remembers their manners. I can't express how sick I am of this idea.
There's this wonderful Canadian researcher called Paul Fairie who collects dire predictions of the breakdown ("A Brief History of Men Today Are Too Feminine and Women Too Masculine" https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1572713537910476801; "The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Any More" https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1681790405615173632) over the decades and centuries, so you realize there were conservatives making the exact same complaints in 5th-century Athens--it's at least partly the psychology of aging elevated by the patriarchy into some simulacrum of philosophy (and a sense of "religion" that pretty much equals dictates from the patriarchy).
The "fabric" metaphor goes along with Brooks's belief there's never any disagreement in a "healthy" society, it's all "unified" (meaning if anybody disagrees with ME it's a sign of degeneracy) and it's so bogus.
Exactly, thank you, and of course I had no doubt that you'd know exactly what I meant, particularly in terms of the religious element.
It's so funny (amusing and odd) that people who are so erudite and educated still can invent from whole cloth a "missing element" whose absence explains why the world they live in doesn't resemble their fantasy of how it should work, meaning, the solutions they propose never work not because they're bad solutions but because of the "missing element" (that nobody ever saw or measured).
It's reminding me of pre-Einstein insistence on the "aether" that light moves through, which nobody can detect but nevertheless MUST be there to ensure that Classical physics isn't violated by the behavior of photons.
Was that it? I honestly can't remember. It was great, though — like the Esquire Dubious Achievement Awards, they excelled at putting the punch line first. (Like, I remember a 1970s Esquire one where the headline was "OH, SHUT UP" and the text was a quote from Redford about how he's got bad skin and bad breath and chews with his mouth open or whatever.)
The more I think about this, the more infuriated I get. (I know it's an old story.) My whole life, Conservatives have been lecturing about Hey, have you noticed how people aren't KIND to each other any more? Everyone's so rude and loud...it's because we've lost our "values" so our "society" is broken. (It's not, of course, about awful, exploitative pressures on the weakest amongst us.) It all starts, not with banks and oligarchs, but "in the family"...it's OUR fault we're not happy. Bastards.
I guess I am not as super enthusiastic as you are but honestly I see no alternative so ...it's fine? What else can we do? It's like the difference between totally hopeless to a modicum of hope.
The alternative is to hold out for a Real Socialist! As the Democratic Socialists of America have done and will continue to do - which led me, over the past few years, to drop my annual contribution from [something considerable] to zero. Idiots as bad as tankies.
You mean a thing that is impossible and cannot happen? I honestly believe if Karl Marx were alive today he would still vote Democrat. He would tell people they are being absurdly individualist to protest vote.
I love the fact that Marx took a gig in the 1860s as Europe correspondent for the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley's Radical Republican paper, and wrote "super-enthusiastic" praise of Lincoln. He didn't imagine the Republicans were Communists, but he understood the importance of the fight against slavery and knew which side he was on in that battle.
Oh, I knew! Great story about Marx! Yeah, it’s great to think about how things should be. As I see it, nothing comes close to that, right now. But then there’s also the issue of whose side you are on. That’s an excellent way to put it. The question of how things should be and whose side you are on can diverge when you have to pick a side. Not only do we have to pick a side right now, we have to cluster and huddle together with people we don’t approve of in any way except for the fact that, if they join with us in the huddle, it prevents much worse things from happening.
I understand why it makes people angry because they feel like they are being forced. But circumstances force us to do a lot of things in life. When it comes to circumstances, sometimes there is no real freedom, in the sense of having meaningful options. Some leftists can get very fixated on who we can blame for this particular set of circumstances. They want to find someone who is to blame and punish them. This seems like a total category mistake to me. It’s simply not that kind of situation. We don’t have that kind of power. Even if we did, this would not get us very far at the moment. I don’t know how someone can mistake a real situation for something so abstract. Maybe focusing on the abstract is a hazard of being a leftist, and maybe I’m too idealistic about leftists in the past--but I simply don’t think they would do that. It is too contrary to actual people’s objective interests. I also believe most current leftists won’t do it either because this is also their focus, and they recognize you have to create the options. Magical thinking is useless. I hope I am right that people have not lost the plot to such a degree.
Likely a major cause of a lot of the conceptual confusion and mean-spiritedness we see is that American politics has poisoned people’s ability to have sufficient solidarity with other people. We’ve become crabs in the barrel. We can’t get out of the barrel by pulling down the other crabs but people see it as ‘doing something.’ ‘Doing something’ in very constrained circumstances is very tempting to people even when it is a harmful thing as it temporarily helps you avoid the feelings you have when you recognize your actual situation. If we could snap people out of this comforting illusion, eventually better things could happen. I personally think it’s the only hope there is --that people will give up this illusion that they can just do a few things, and that’s all it takes. The situation is so much harder than that. It involves a continual struggle with no endpoint in sight.
I don't think you can overstate, in addition to all the things you've mentioned, the great increase in the enthusiasm and optimism level on the left. the feeling that despite all the talk of Armageddon from the right and, lamentably, the media, (but I repeat myself), there is a sense of a shift toward decency, for lack of a better word, in the national attitude. it reminds me of the feeling of the possibility of a better world that I held so dear in the late 60s and early 70s, when we hippies stoned ourselves into thinking it actually could happen, even in the face of the assassinations and police actions against minorities, and the poor, and anyone not of the rigid, conservative 50s mindset.
sorry about the run-on sentences.
"our social fabric is in tatters"
What the fuck is this mysterious "social fabric" that Allan Bloom and Brooks and all of them have been clucking over and scolding us about for decades? What the fuck are those words supposed to mean?
When I look at America today I see a lot of angry right-wingers and a lot of beleagured left-wingers but beyond that I see a fully functioning society with jobs and schools and doctors and highways and movie theaters and jazz clubs and NASCAR races and ball games, all interacting very smoothly, with people helping each other change their tires on the roadside and subscribing to magazines and giving blood — where exactly is this "tattered fabric"?
Of course it's RELIGIOUS, what they're talking about: it's the absence of the infinitely soothing Sunday morning scene where everyone gathers in their somber coats and presses their hands earnestly into their neighbors'; it's a Norman Rockwell painting or a Reagan movie. It's Disney. It's this stupid "missing element" that's supposed to make a hands-off society perfect, as long as everyone remembers their manners. I can't express how sick I am of this idea.
There's this wonderful Canadian researcher called Paul Fairie who collects dire predictions of the breakdown ("A Brief History of Men Today Are Too Feminine and Women Too Masculine" https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1572713537910476801; "The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Any More" https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1681790405615173632) over the decades and centuries, so you realize there were conservatives making the exact same complaints in 5th-century Athens--it's at least partly the psychology of aging elevated by the patriarchy into some simulacrum of philosophy (and a sense of "religion" that pretty much equals dictates from the patriarchy).
The "fabric" metaphor goes along with Brooks's belief there's never any disagreement in a "healthy" society, it's all "unified" (meaning if anybody disagrees with ME it's a sign of degeneracy) and it's so bogus.
Exactly, thank you, and of course I had no doubt that you'd know exactly what I meant, particularly in terms of the religious element.
It's so funny (amusing and odd) that people who are so erudite and educated still can invent from whole cloth a "missing element" whose absence explains why the world they live in doesn't resemble their fantasy of how it should work, meaning, the solutions they propose never work not because they're bad solutions but because of the "missing element" (that nobody ever saw or measured).
It's reminding me of pre-Einstein insistence on the "aether" that light moves through, which nobody can detect but nevertheless MUST be there to ensure that Classical physics isn't violated by the behavior of photons.
Those are fantastic! (The Fairie posts.) "No commentary needed." (Or however E. B. White's gang used to put it with the column feet.)
Isn't it great
“Submitted without comment”? (Trying to remember that Ross-era dry tone.)
"No Comment Department"?
Was that it? I honestly can't remember. It was great, though — like the Esquire Dubious Achievement Awards, they excelled at putting the punch line first. (Like, I remember a 1970s Esquire one where the headline was "OH, SHUT UP" and the text was a quote from Redford about how he's got bad skin and bad breath and chews with his mouth open or whatever.)
The more I think about this, the more infuriated I get. (I know it's an old story.) My whole life, Conservatives have been lecturing about Hey, have you noticed how people aren't KIND to each other any more? Everyone's so rude and loud...it's because we've lost our "values" so our "society" is broken. (It's not, of course, about awful, exploitative pressures on the weakest amongst us.) It all starts, not with banks and oligarchs, but "in the family"...it's OUR fault we're not happy. Bastards.
I think that he has a solid successor, too, although people love to hate on her
Fuck yeah.
just to add, what an incredible black hole of progressive thought is our mr brooks. as drift glass relentlessly asks, why does he, brooks, have a job?
Great comparison
I guess I am not as super enthusiastic as you are but honestly I see no alternative so ...it's fine? What else can we do? It's like the difference between totally hopeless to a modicum of hope.
The alternative is to hold out for a Real Socialist! As the Democratic Socialists of America have done and will continue to do - which led me, over the past few years, to drop my annual contribution from [something considerable] to zero. Idiots as bad as tankies.
You mean a thing that is impossible and cannot happen? I honestly believe if Karl Marx were alive today he would still vote Democrat. He would tell people they are being absurdly individualist to protest vote.
That's meant as snark. Read all three sentences.
I love the fact that Marx took a gig in the 1860s as Europe correspondent for the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley's Radical Republican paper, and wrote "super-enthusiastic" praise of Lincoln. He didn't imagine the Republicans were Communists, but he understood the importance of the fight against slavery and knew which side he was on in that battle.
Oh, I knew! Great story about Marx! Yeah, it’s great to think about how things should be. As I see it, nothing comes close to that, right now. But then there’s also the issue of whose side you are on. That’s an excellent way to put it. The question of how things should be and whose side you are on can diverge when you have to pick a side. Not only do we have to pick a side right now, we have to cluster and huddle together with people we don’t approve of in any way except for the fact that, if they join with us in the huddle, it prevents much worse things from happening.
I understand why it makes people angry because they feel like they are being forced. But circumstances force us to do a lot of things in life. When it comes to circumstances, sometimes there is no real freedom, in the sense of having meaningful options. Some leftists can get very fixated on who we can blame for this particular set of circumstances. They want to find someone who is to blame and punish them. This seems like a total category mistake to me. It’s simply not that kind of situation. We don’t have that kind of power. Even if we did, this would not get us very far at the moment. I don’t know how someone can mistake a real situation for something so abstract. Maybe focusing on the abstract is a hazard of being a leftist, and maybe I’m too idealistic about leftists in the past--but I simply don’t think they would do that. It is too contrary to actual people’s objective interests. I also believe most current leftists won’t do it either because this is also their focus, and they recognize you have to create the options. Magical thinking is useless. I hope I am right that people have not lost the plot to such a degree.
Likely a major cause of a lot of the conceptual confusion and mean-spiritedness we see is that American politics has poisoned people’s ability to have sufficient solidarity with other people. We’ve become crabs in the barrel. We can’t get out of the barrel by pulling down the other crabs but people see it as ‘doing something.’ ‘Doing something’ in very constrained circumstances is very tempting to people even when it is a harmful thing as it temporarily helps you avoid the feelings you have when you recognize your actual situation. If we could snap people out of this comforting illusion, eventually better things could happen. I personally think it’s the only hope there is --that people will give up this illusion that they can just do a few things, and that’s all it takes. The situation is so much harder than that. It involves a continual struggle with no endpoint in sight.