Solidarity Comment Thread

.


I posted the following quote:


“Why is it that right-wing bastards always stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, while liberals fall out among themselves?” - Yevgeny Yevtushenko


And then found the comment thread particularly interesting:


JM: Cause 1/2 those people only call themselves liberals!

TP: We're still alive.

JW: We fall out with each other because we're still alive? Solidarity equals death?

TP: Nous n'aimons pas mais comment pouvons-nous ne pas aimer? 

FG: Let me try something. Maybe it's because lots of right-wing ideas are really simple (close to stupid), so the complexity off bringing smart and creative minds together is not an issue there...

JW: Calling the enemy stupid might also be a way of avoiding the fact that the enemy is winning.

FG: I would say that weirdly, it's not stupidity, it's in fact, in a way, faith. Maybe we have to work on faith.

MA: Because the left never fucks the company, it prefers posting and discussing instead.

EZ: Because they have the power to create money... they can and do fall out with each other all the time... but no matter how much they fall out with each other, they have limitless resources to fall back on... when "liberals" fall out with each other, its often because we are competing for scarce resources.

JR: The right wing bastards understand that corporate/collective action is power. They are winning because they understand this more practically than the left does.

RF: We are cursed with the capacity for independent thought??

NK: Because we're still thinking of "us" and "them".   

KC: Who's we?

JM: When dealing with justice, ie: values and principles (and the rights that societies develop in putting those into practice) the monolithic 'they' that decrees and enforces is an entity that by its essence creates 'we' by virtue of those who fall outside its estate. 'We' is a defacto description of those who do not create, police, enforce or litigate the application of 'justice'; 'We' speaks to those upon whom justice is administered. That is not to be confused with 'justice' as in the 'just' access to rights and application of law, but rather, the imperfect and structurally flawed enforcement of social mechanisms that include the administration of law. 'We' are the excluded, 'they' are the exclusive.

JW: I always thought that maybe it had something to do with a greater respect for hierarchy, a greater respect for discipline and a greater respect for power. But it's also clearly true that's it's much easier to display solidarity when you are the police then it is when you're fighting against the police. Still, no explanation ever feels completely satisfying. And I keep wishing that I was, personally, better at feeling a sense of solidarity.
 


.