What's Left?
Politics after 9/11.
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by Sam and Molly
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After the attacks, there was an immediate sense of being alive among other people
who were also alive. Danger and potency made the air in Manhattan electric and thick.
One question posed itself in every mind: "What to do?"
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And this quesiton gave birth to others: What caused this to happen? And how can
the world be changed so that this will not happen again? The need for a common answer,
a revelation of strength and possibility for humanity, was palpable, a feeling in the core
of the body.
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Guiliani’s answer -- and Bush’s when he emerged from hiding -- was laced with
scorn for regular Americans: a "return to normalcy." They rushed to label the flood of
burgeoning questions, both productive and profound, as anxiety and panic. The message
was: public involvement in these matters can only be irrational and destabilizing. There
are professionals handling the situation. The U.S. Military will bring the perpetrators to
justice; the Red Cross and the Church will heal us; the National Guard and the Police will
make us secure. To all the Americans desperate to act and to change: go back to your
job, go back to the mall. Look to your own affairs as the total extent of your life; manage
your grief privately. If you want to do something, give money.
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Liberals, on the other hand, encouraged Americans to embrace their anxiety and
confusion as the only alternative to dangerous extremism. Cultural figures, from Oprah
to the Beastie Boys, immediately rose to accuse their audiences of wanting only the kind
of simplistic answers that would justify violence and ignorant revenge. Public hurt and
outrage could only be expressed in racist attacks on Arab-Americans and bloodthirsty
exuberance over U.S. bombing. Americans reaching out to their communities, their
country, and the world, were told: be still, pull back, clear your own conscience with
peacefulness, isolation, and shame.
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The voices of our "leaders" formed a unity of fear and hatred of the actions of
common Americans. Their fundamental consensus was laid bare: an active public can
only bring chaos and ruin. The dynamism and passion of ordinary people cannot be
allowed to accumulate unchecked.
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None of this, however, comes as a surprise. America has always been afflicted by
powerful anti-populist forces, and the pacifying drone of elitism travels in well-worn ruts.
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What was surprising, and disheartening, was that in this moment of national vitality and
self-awareness, no one called out to the American people. A belief in regular men and
women, a respect for the value of work, and an insistence that human life be allowed its
full expression, are every bit as fundamental to our culture as are corporatism and the
logic of control. Why, then, was the current political counter-culture totally incapable of addressing the new demands and new conditions of Americans?
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What, after all of this, is the left? The tradition of the left has always been to
uphold the creative strength of the people who do the work of society as the only force
adequate to redeem the world from the folly of tyrants and warmongers. Left activism
has sought to elevate our common aspirations, has provided creative ways to extend and
deepen our power, and has opposed our will to that of "leaders" who diminish and
endanger us.
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Much of the activism of the last few years has created the sense that American
work can be only frivolous or destructive, and that the perversion of our efforts by the
captains of industry is what defines us as a nation. After September 11th, left activism
must begin to satisfy America’s desperate need for a positive understanding of itself and
a way to use its knowledge and abilities to make the world better. Regular Americans
have the right to identify themselves with the builders of the World Trade center instead
of the people who have engineered its destruction, the people who have unselfishly given
the little money that they have instead of the Wall Street investors who have sold short
American work, the brave passengers who downed the fourth plane instead of the CIA
that shamelessly uses American lives and names as pawns in its global politics of terror.
If protest is the defining moment of leftism in times of "prosperity," necessary to
shatter the illusion of well-being projected by triumphal corporations, now that
Americans are united in the idea of world change, a broader form of movement-building
is needed. With Americans agitated and idled, the possibilities for a strong left are open.
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It is time to lead working America out of the quagmire of shame and defeat that has
defined the politics of the last thirty years. It is time for thinkers who want a better future for humanity to stop talking about Americans and start talking to Americans.
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