Saturday, December 31, 2011

Resentment

This is the leading political force in the U.S. today. The idea that "I" as an individual, or "my family", deserve more. "I" have been wronged by outside forces.

This is not the basis for any type of Left movement, which has to be formed around the idea of solidarity. OWS is not to fault, for the slogan of a 99% versus 1% is a solid one.

But the U.S. has been so successfully riven into various identity factions that the solidarity needed as the foundation for a Left movement will be, in my view, nearly impossible to come by. This view comes from living in all regions of the country and working in about every type of job imaginable. If one spends some time in an OWS encampment, or lives only in a coastal urban metropolis, it is very easy to forget about the rest of this country (representing 90% of U.S. GDP). Just look at the poll numbers for OWS.

1 comment:

The Arthurian said...

...Anger has everyone pointing fingers, and the Right aligns those fingers toward government like a magnet aligning iron filings. The Right is always focused on blaming govt, while the Left is always out of focus, because the Left is always the voice of independent individuals that the Right claims to be.

And the world moves to the right...