Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
As of late, I’ve written a fair bit about factions and sectarianism on the left. On that topic, I recently revisited a quote from Thomas Merton.
For anyone who doesn’t know Merton, he was a Trappist monk. He wrote on Catholicism, social justice, and other topics. Among many other books, he wrote the autobiographical The Seven Storey Mountain.
I’m a regular reader of the magazine n+1. In each issue, we get a little set of essays at the beginning called The Intellectual Situation. This typically amounts to an essay of a few thousand words on some recent major topic. Ideally I think the topic stands out as one that’s particularly pressing among n+1’s readership. The idea isn’t without its problems. The essay often ends up centering the concerns of professional class progressives from New York. But it works out well enough.
Anyway, in the most recent issue, the author suggested that the early pandemic produced large changes in what’s politically possible. Changes that, ultimately, went away as the pandemic wore on.
Do readers agree with this? I know we saw large checks from the federal government in the early pandemic months. And we saw a rise in some kinds of social supports. But we also saw great inequality and, frankly, large pockets of selfishness.
I’m not convinced much changed, politically. The system adapted itself to the pandemic in as minimal a way as possible. For the most part, I think the background work needed was mostly missing. And so, most efforts at deep change made only small gains.
Alright, we’ve officially hit the spring. Like (hopefully) all of you, I’m ready to move along to that spring reading. Let’s see what we’ve got!
I remember the first time I heard about Facebook. I worked for the Indiana University Bookstore in my senior year of college. The job paid minimum wage ($5.15 at the time), but it was the easiest job in the world. I walked about 10 minutes from my apartment to the middle of the IU campus and lounged around for 4-8 hours. Those were the days?
Anyway, one day someone at work told me about Facebook. I thought she said ‘Face Party’ and didn’t think much of it. A few months later, I had an account and used it all the time. 17 years later – but who’s counting? – I think I’ve seen enough to reflect a bit on social media, its impact on my own life, and its impact on the lives of those younger than me.
In my previous FAQ, I posted about my own ideology. One might ask next why I don’t use this blog as a platform for detailed ideological debate.
First, I have to admit this post is a bit of a cheat. I’ve already written a post about the sectarian left. Specifically, I wrote about why I don’t discuss it. Nevertheless, I still get this question quite a bit. And so, I’m adding it to the blog’s FAQ section.
In short, I don’t write about the sectarian left because I don’t find it all that interesting. Sometimes sectarians discuss some nice bit of theory or another. And I certainly read plenty of leftist theory.
But sectarians often bicker with one another. They discuss arcane bits of century-old theory on very literal terms without trying to update it for the 21st century. And, perhaps most importantly, they often do little in the way of actual activism or organizing. Sectarians simply haven’t done much. And the risks and headaches of entering into sectarian debate far outweigh the rewards.
At least they do for me. And it’s my blog. So I’m going to continue not discussing the sectarian left until I find a good reason to change my mind.
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