skzb – Page 39 – The Dream Café

The Power of Symbols

One aspect of the recent, horrific events in South Carolina that has gotten some attention involves the “Confederate Flag” (technically, a rendering of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia)–displayed on the license plate holder of the shooter (If this were a newspaper, I’d be obligated to say “alleged shooter” but it’s not so I’m not so I won’t) and also flying on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. Some are giving intellectual, carefully wrought defenses of the flag, explaining what it “really” means–that’s fine; such people can be written off as morally bankrupt and we don’t need to deal with them. But I’ve recently come across some who are saying, “Let’s forget about the symbol and concentrate on the substance.” That’s worth taking a moment to look at.

A symbol is a concentrated image. Symbols can be powerful rallying points, like union songs during a strike. They can establish points of commonality, both by loving them and hating them. I know my pulse quickens when I see the hammer&sickle-4, symbol of the Fourth International, because of all that it means in history and in defiance and in hope. I know that I clench my teeth on seeing the Confederate flag because of all that it means in violent, organized opposition to freedom.

Let me quote from my own book. I can do that, because this passage was written by my collaborator: “But it’s never the symbol–the bird itself, the cross itself, the prophet’s name in and of itself that is sacred–it’s the welter of emotions, ideas, and insights it triggers. If it triggers nothing, its power is nothing.”--The Incrementalists

To be sure, a symbol can only do so much; its power is limited. It cannot answer arguments, or explore nuances, or provide a cost-effective treatment for subdural hemotoma. But thousands of avowed white supremicists have taken the Confederate flag as their symbol. There are, no doubt, many to whom it represents something different. Yet to me, it is significant that it is impossible to disagree on the meaning of that flag without the conversation at once leading to a discussion of the U.S. Civil war in which the person defending the flag will pull out all of the old idiocies–“It wasn’t really about slavery” “they had a constitutional right to secede” “Lincoln was a bad human being” &c &c ad nauseam. And what all of those arguments boil down to is a defense of human chattel slavery, which today means a defense of all that is backward, reactionary, ignorant, anti-democratic.

That is one thing that symbol does. Another thing it does is that in our (in my opinion, fully justified) disdain, it can bring many of us together. Whatever our differences, when use of that flag makes us seethe, we know that what we have in common is a hatred of oppression and injustice.

The differences among those of us who support equality are legion, and non-trivial. But with that much in common, it is good to be reminded that those differences may be worth talking about.

That is the power of symbols.

Regrets

Now that my 60th birthday is approaching, I’ve been starting to look back at some of the things that I always meant to do but that, to be realistic, it is now too late for. Some of you, I know, are still young, so take this as advice from an old man, and learn from it.

I meant to learn Sumerian well enough to have written a powerful, moving, life-affirming novel that would have been hailed as a work of genius by the three people able to understand it, and that would have been instantly translated into four other dead languages.

I would have liked to raise a horde of mounted warriors and lead them on a plundering expedition across central Europe.

I wish I’d gotten around to building that time machine so I could have gone back and listened to the Grateful Dead closing Winterland, December 31, 1978.

I always wanted to discover a portal into a parallel universe in which everything is just like it is here except that bunny ears and propeller beanies are standard business-wear.

I wish I’d finished the schematics for the teleporter.

I kept meaning to re-invent mathematics in such a way that the deepest mysteries of the universe became trivially obvious, but I always seemed to be doing something else.

Somehow, it was just never the right time to turn into an immortal demi-god breathing fumes of Argon gas with volcanoes erupting at my whim and travel the universe leaving a swathe of destruction in my wake.

Ah well. If my advice saves just one of you from these sorts of regrets, my life won’t have been entirely wasted.

Quoted Without Comment

There is a passage in John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook The World–his account of the Bolshevik revolution–that has always had a special place in my heart. I reproduce it here, because I feel like it:

We sallied out into the town. Just at the door of the station stood two soldiers with rifles and bayonets fixed. They were surrounded by about a hundred business men, Government officials and students, who attacked them with passionate argument and epithet. The soldiers were uncomfortable and hurt, like children unjustly scolded.

A tall young man with a supercilious expression, dressed in the uniform of a student, was leading the attack.

“You realise, I presume,” he said insolently, “that by taking up arms against your brothers you are making yourselves the tools of murderers and traitors?”

“Now brother,” answered the soldier earnestly, “you don’t understand. There are two classes, don’t you see, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. We—”

“Oh, I know that silly talk!” broke in the student rudely. “A bunch of ignorant peasants like you hear somebody bawling a few catch-words. You don’t understand what they mean. You just echo them like a lot of parrots.” The crowd laughed. “I’m a Marxian student. And I tell you that this isn’t Socialism you are fighting for. It’s just plain pro-German anarchy!”

“Oh, yes, I know,” answered the soldier, with sweat dripping from his brow. “You are an educated man, that is easy to see, and I am only a simple man. But it seems to me—”

“I suppose,” interrupted the other contemptuously, “that you believe Lenin is a real friend of the proletariat?”

“Yes, I do,” answered the soldier, suffering.

“Well, my friend, do you know that Lenin was sent through Germany in a closed car? Do you know that Lenin took money from the Germans?”

“Well, I don’t know much about that,” answered the soldier stubbornly, “but it seems to me that what he says is what I want to hear, and all the simple men like me. Now there are two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat—”

“You are a fool! Why, my friend, I spent two years in Schlüsselburg for revolutionary activity, when you were still shooting down revolutionists and singing ‘God Save the Tsar!’ My name is Vasili Georgevitch Panyin. Didn’t you ever hear of me?”

“I’m sorry to say I never did,” answered the soldier with humility. “But then, I am not an educated man. You are probably a great hero.”

“I am,” said the student with conviction. “And I am opposed to the Bolsheviki, who are destroying our Russia, our free Revolution. Now how do you account for that?”

The soldier scratched his head. “I can’t account for it at all,” he said, grimacing with the pain of his intellectual processes. “To me it seems perfectly simple—but then, I’m not well educated. It seems like there are only two classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie—”

“There you go again with your silly formula!” cried the student.

“—only two classes,” went on the soldier, doggedly. “And whoever isn’t on one side is on the other…”

We wandered on up the street….

Some Samples of Internet Logic

Here are a few things I’ve come across over the last few years. I have not made any of these up. Their profundity speaks for itself.

Scientists are sure they’re right, and religious people are sure they’re right. Therefore, science is a religion.

Leftists have splintered into many factions, and Christians have splintered into many factions. Therefore, Leftists are the same as Christians.

Different historians studying the same event will come to different conclusions. Therefore, there is no such thing as historical truth.

Individuals on both sides of [internet kerfuffle] have behaved badly. Therefore, both sides are wrong.

I do not have a name for my philosophical method. Therefore, I have no philosophical method and I just see things as they are.

Reactionaries oppose political organizing based on personal identity, and revolutionaries oppose political organizing based on personal identity. Therefore revolutionaries are the same as reactionaries.

There has not been mass working class action in my lifetime. Therefore, there will never be mass working class action.

I can’t think of any reason for atheism except faith. Therefore, neither can you.

I do not understand how society works. Therefore, neither do you.

A Quick Note On Free Speech

First of all, to be clear, I’m not a free speech absolutist. As I’ve said elsewhere, free speech is an important weapon for the working class, but it is not some sort of holy principle that rises above the class struggle.

Second, what I’m talking about here has nothing to do with the First Amendment. While I am a great supporter of that amendment, it has, as we all know, to do with the State, not with individuals or private organizations.

What does have a great deal to do with individuals or private organizations is suppression of speech. And many people who self-identify as Leftists are at least as guilty of this as those who openly and honestly declare their support of oppression.

I’m going to keep this short: If you are attempting to prevent others from expressing an opinion, you are acting against the free and open exchange of ideas. It’s really that simple. If you are saying, “You have expressed an opinion that I find abhorrent, therefore I am going to try to get you fired or keep you from getting work or have you shunned,” you are taking a stand against freedom and in favor of oppression, however well-meaning you might be.

And, seriously, don’t even start with the pettifogging. “Don’t I have the right to not buy something if I dislike the author?” Of course you do, it’s a non-issue, and it is utter bullshit and you know it. No one is trying to tell you whose work you should or shouldn’t buy. But if you try to tell me you can’t see the difference between not buying something, and making an active effort to harm someone’s livelihood, I’ll call you a liar to your face.

A simple, public declaration, such as,”I will not buy books from this publisher because [they publish someone I disapprove of] [they have failed to sufficiently chastise someone who said something I hate]” is putting you on the side of those who are against freedom, of those who benefit from oppression. Stop it.