Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, December 16, 2020
After reading her article, I could still not understand "how Portland radicalized"
Lippy. She attempts to be apolitical without
any politics of her own. The fact that this is posted in CounterPunch, a liberal
online publication, is the only clue as to her politics. Because her
article was posted in this publication, I can only make an assumption
about her politics: her actions were motivated by a concern for
minorities who have historically been oppressed.
By
politics, I refer to the hierarchical class structure which
underlies all history of human societies after they first settled in
agricultural communities. This class structure, which gives more
opportunities and decisions to some people in contrast others, has
divided people and caused serious social conflicts ever since humans settled in
these communities.
Because we live "in a country of lies" (Curtin),
the ruling class uses the arts of deception extensively to maintain
their dominance and privileges over the rest of the population. The
system of capitalism gives certain members, identified as capitalists,
so much power over the rest of the population that they are able to impose
their rules, manners, and interests on the former. Thus, they became a
ruling class. In order to protect their wealth and privileges, they have had to
resort to many subterfuges to remain in power.
These capitalists
proceeded to take power away from the monarchy and the aristocracy,
which had ruled for a number of centuries initially through the use of
arbitrary rules and violence or the threat of violence. But later, they
to succumbed to self-serving mythologies, mostly religions, to maintain
their rule. This new capitalist class based their power on the claims of
"ownership" of the rapidly developing economic properties (industries) that started roughly in the 15th century in Europe. Because they were a
minority, they had to appeal to the majority of citizens. They did so by
calling themselves "liberals" (freedom from arbitrary rules laid down
by monarchs and aristocrats) to appeal to ordinary people who resented
the arbitrary nature of feudal authorities, and to claim they were
establishing democracies (rule by the people). These were the first two
lies, but they didn't stop there.
The
new capitalist classes became dominant everywhere and resorted to many
lies to legitimatize their rule in the eyes of the vast majority. They
rewrote history and laws which essentially sanctified the ownership of
economic property. Naturally, the small publishers initially tended to
distort their reporting to favor the new ruling capitalist classes. They reorganized lands that belonged to feudal authorities into nations. Capitalists
appealed to nationalist instincts to wage wars to secure more
resources. Naturally, they told lies to cover their covetous motivations.
They spread stories about the inferiority and barbarity of their
enemies.
Over time,
capitalism consolidated so much property in the hands of a relatively
few people that it was increasingly noticed by activist members of the general
public which challenged the rule of capitalists. These latter became
known as socialists or communists because they challenged private
ownership of economic property. The capitalist ruling classes, in order
to retain their dominant status, increasingly used "propaganda" to
distort the thinking of their subject in self-serving ways. They also
used their dominance over all institutions (education, history,
entertainment, etc.) to impose their self-serving views on the rest of
their societies which became ever larger over time as was the ownership
of economic property secured in ever fewer hands. They told lies about racial minorities in order to divide and control ordinary Americans. This racist strategy has been resurrected today by the capitalist ruling class to sustain their diminishing power. I suspect it underlies the recent events in
Portland and the confused politics of Lippy.
But the fundamental problem is
that the general public is so confused about the nature of their
societies and politics that they are easily manipulated by capitalist
authorities. They have been lied to so much for so long by highly trained and remunerated propaganda specialists that they no longer have a realistic grasp of political
reality. This, I suspect, applies to Lippy, the author of this article, and to so many activists like her.
To rid themselves of this confusion, activists need to renew their conceptions of reality by studying history by real historians and to pursue the ever elusive truth about what is happening in the world through alternative media. This is precisely why I started on a journalistic project about three years ago: to restore some semblance to reality so that activists can no longer be manipulated. They must reject material conveniently furnished by media corporations. They must study real history from a working-class point of view if they are to effectively challenge the ruling capitalist class.