It's Kafka's World, We Just Live In It

A brief homily:

Because we cannot have honest conversations about race in this country, the Left (such as it is) cannot break out of the cycle of political self-defeat. On the one hand, white Liberals tender contrition and guilt to people of color and stifle free speech in the hope that doing so will make everything better (that's one of the main reasons that they despise Trump: it's not his policies--Biden has supported similar ones--it's the fact that he has no filter). That is what has become of the "New Left."

On the other hand, people of color are often unwilling to acknowledge their own complicity in their oppression (Cornel West is a noteworthy exception, but there are others). The military has long been a "workfare" program for people of color to improve their socio-economic prospects--BUT IT'S A TRAP. Once you are sufficiently invested in the system, they can get you to lie, kill, and die for it. International solidarity is what is needed--one of the hallmarks of the "Old Left." But so long as the white supremacist capitalists can get well-meaning Liberals to believe that Stalin discredited the Old Left (instead of simply discrediting himself), the co-opting and killings will go on and on, here, there, everywhere.

The cop who murdered George Floyd in cold blood and broad daylight should be prosecuted like any other common criminal. But if he is prosecuted, and if he is convicted (most probably of a lesser offense than the one he actually committed), it will only be a bone tossed in the direction of racial justice. The criminal justice system itself is rotten with racism (I should know, I spent a decade discovering just how deep the rot goes) and we are long past the point of ameliorative tinkering. Neo-liberal capitalism and its various mechanisms of enforcement (the militarized police force is just one example) need to be dismantled and, for that, we will need all hands on deck--regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, etc.

The idea that if we can just get a Democrat in the White House then all will be well is delusional fantasy. As a scholar of religion, I study the ways in which religious institutions capitalize on the wishful thinking of their constituencies and encourage people to act against their own best interests. But the fact is, political institutions are no different. Liberals who smile indulgently at talk of Divine miracles become fervent believers whenever the Democratic Party dangles its latest savior in front of them.

All of which reminds me (as if I needed more reminders) that it's Kafka's world, we just live in it.