Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Month: May 2023 (Page 2 of 2)

Modified Consensus and Activist Conflict

Activist communities often tread gingerly around conflict. They know it tears activist groups apart, especially personal conflict. It has done so for decades.

Sometimes even political conflict tears activist groups apart. The groups find it difficult to work through disagreement on even ordinary political issues, especially in their first few meetings. Usually groups come together as voluntarily associations of people interested in a few topics, and they don’t have much in the way of long personal history and built-up trust.

Many groups react to all these things by avoiding conflict. They bury the conflict, pretending it doesn’t exist. In the short term, this provides some benefits. But it’s almost always a long term path to nowhere. Let’s talk about better ways to handle conflict, specifically modified consensus as a model.

Many react to this history by avoiding conflict. They bury it – pretend it doesn’t exist. This can help in the short-term. But it’s almost always a long-term path to nowhere. Let’s talk about better ways to handle conflict.

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Nostalgia for the Early Pandemic

Lately I’ve noticed lots of people seem nostalgic for the early pandemic time of spring and summer 2020. Especially young people. You can hear it in how they talk, especially online. I’m not the only person who has noticed this.

But the nostalgia didn’t take the form I might have guessed. People’s lives certainly changed in 2020. Things happened! And then, in many cases, their lives went back to how they were before 2020. Lots of people didn’t like the return to pre-2020. But they weren’t latching onto the features I initially expected.

So, what’s going on here? Why do people seem to miss the quarantine days of March 2020 or the protest and uprising days of June 2020.

Here are some thoughts.

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May Day

Way back in 2018, I wrote a short post explaining the U.S. holiday ‘Labor Day,’ focusing on its differences from the international holiday May Day. Among other things, I posted out to readers that both holidays originated in the United States! Before, of course, the U.S. decided to eff things up and try to stamp out May Day.

Which it failed to do. Sort of. I’ll refer readers to the Labor Day post I linked above for the full details. But, suffice it to say, the U.S. government – with a notable helping hand from right-leaning, anti-communist unions – played its part in the stifling of a workers’ tradition that started in our own country.

It’s a bummer. But it does teach us the lesson that we of the left have started deep traditions before. We can do it again.

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