Excerpts from a post entitled "Incrementalism" originally posted
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
....
All through the Bush years, Incrementalism was touted on the so-called Progressive Internets as the Only Appropriate Response to Bushevik Radicalism. The very fact that the Busheviks were Radical and (counter)Revolutionary, especially in their foreign policies and their overthrow of the remnants of Constitutional law and so forth, was frequently denied or obscured by prominent Lefty bloggers ... so as not to stir up the masses too much about what was going on. Or one supposes the rationale behind the Incrementalist fervor during the Bush years was simple self-protection.
After all, the Stasi was watching, and at any time, so the thinking went, the round ups could begin, starting with anyone and everyone spouting off against the Regime and calling for Revolution Now! There was one incident over at [Greenwald's] that highlighted what THAT was about when [a frequent commenter] freaked over something I said: "Who should be first against the wall when the Revolution comes?"
O. M. G. You'd think the "Marxist Cell" that is the Greenwaldian patch of the Internets had been discovered. I'd used the quote before (it's from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, c. 1972, and it has a long history in geeky comic lit. The quote from Hitchhiker's Guide runs as follows:
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes," with a footnote to the effect that the editors would welcome applications from anyone interested in taking over the post of robotics correspondent.
Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopaedia Galactica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future defined the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."
And this has been making the rounds for decades. Yet both times I used the quote/idea in postings on the internets the proprietors and/or their agents ... have gone ape shit in fear that someone would break down their door at midnight and drag them and their family away to the Konzentrationslager forthwith.
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. -- Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
Riffing on Emma Goldman: "A Revolution without music and dancing and laughter and love is a revolution not worth having."
I see by the tone of my emails on the topic of Nonviolence and Diversity of Tactics that the issue has largely dissipated and defused, sort of how I hoped it would be.
The Occupy framework allows -- indeed, requires -- intense discussion of every issue under the sun, and in the case of the re-emergence of the Occupy Movement into the public consciousness through the dramatic and confrontational incidents in Oakland on January 28, the intensity of the discussion that's been going on from before the first day of Occupy Wall Street was magnified.
The underlying question is always one of Trust; how can you trust these people when they cut up plastic garbage cans and make them into shields, painted with peace symbols, my god in heaven! and use them in formations for protection against police fire. How confrontational! How provocative!
Yes. Well. It is.
And we can talk about it. A lot. When people get tired, they can learn to laugh, and move on to the next topic of National Interest and Concern. Dancing is good, too.
Has there ever been a Revolution quite like this? A Revolution for which there doesn't have to be a pre-set answer, goal, outcome, faith, or even action beyond waking up?
I recall how intensely furious some of the early participants were -- and not just the Socialists, either -- that everything was too formless and unorganized and it absolutely positively would not in a million years ever under any circumstances turn into anything that anybody would pay any attention to or that could ever make a difference. Ever! Harrumph! And they were listened to, politely. They were offered every opportunity to provide their own ideas, a few of which they did, but it seemed pretty obvious that what they mostly wanted to do was control what other people did. And that didn't work out so well.
The notion that somewhere there lurk all these armed insurrectionists (in Black, of course, and wearing Masks, acting like Ninjas) who are even now preparing to take over the Movement, or in some places like Oakland have already done so, is... well, it's silly. I've heard and read it time and again, and the idea flies in the face of reality. No, that's not what's happening.
Does it really look like that's what's happening? That all these Ninja Warriors are infiltrating and taking over Occupy and OWS from the Good and Peaceful People for whom this Movement was Meant To Be? It must look that way to some Good and Peaceful People, or I wouldn't be reading and hearing it so often.
No, what has happened in the real world, is that the more militant aspects of the Movement -- militant aspects that have been there since the beginning -- are at the fore.
This Revolution includes both Peaceful and Militant aspects at the same time; there is no necessity that one or the other dominate. One is Peaceful when conditions call for Peacefulness; one is Militant when conditions call for Militancy. One can express Peaceful Militancy::Militant Peacefulness. It's OK. There is no requirement to Occupy.
Those who don't want a Revolution see one hiding in the shadows anyway, ready to jump out at us and spook the Good and Peaceful People who just want some adjustments to the way things have been for quite some time now, but not wholesale overthrow or substantial change in the way we've accustomed ourselves to being.
Any sentient being would be alert to the disruptive potentials of the situation. We are not living in an age of calm. Pressure is relentless and from all directions. Lashing out at phantoms is common. Those Ninjas, you know.
Listening to and participating in some of the discussions going on, it's clear that there is more than a little trepidation that this Thing might just succeed, and no one knows yet what "success" might look like.
I've pointed to the first-level victory in Oakland, where the authority of the public officials and the police has simply evaporated. Delegitimizing authority is a fundamental step in Revolution, essential in order to move forward. And it has happened in Oakland. But what does "moving forward" look like? No one is quite able to say.
Does it mean more formations of NinjasWarriors with garbage can shields doing set piece battles with exhausted and frustrated police? Certainly not! Does it mean more catcalling and heckling the Mayor and City Council. Come come. Once the Power is delegitimized, what's the point of further public humiliation?
On the other hand, unless there are concessions by Power and Authority, the pressure must continue, and so far in the course of these events, there have been no real concessions. In most cases, not even phony ones.
Power concedes nothing without the demand -- Fredrick Douglass
Yet there are no demands. So there is nothing for Power to concede.
Just tell us what you want!
Well, no. Why don't you just do the right thing?
It does boil down to that moral dilemma for Our High and Our Mighty, for they have not been encouraged to do the right thing for many a long year; or rather, they haven't heard the calls to do so.
In fact, they haven't heard the calls of the People for so long, they forgot the People were there. Now that the reminders are all around them, reminders which they cannot escape, they don't know what to do.
They face an existential struggle simply to comprehend.
But their struggle is mirrored by that of the People, whose plight is increasingly difficult, a plight which it is the fashion among the Mighty to flee. There is no longer a Public Interest interest among public officials. They apparently skipped over that section in class.
A government so divorced from its people, as ours has become, cannot be made to serve the Public Interest again. Certainly, if what's going on in Europe is any guide, and I think it might well be, the divorce is finalized. Peoples and Governments are now on completely different planes of existence, not even able to communicate with one another any longer. Not even through their attorneys.
It's over.
The next step is the development of parallel systems. Once authority is delegitimized, alternatives and their demonstration are called for.
The Oakland Commune is an example of an alternative social system relying on mutual aid, something that has largely been lost from our social consciousness over the past few decades -- except, perhaps, in some segments of the faith community and the radical political community.
It's not as if models for the next step don't exist. They're everywhere.
We may not see many giant rallies and marches appear this year (May 1 may be the exception to the rule); their utility is limited in any case. The rally and the march are more and more easily countered these days. Something else is called for.
Strategic thinking, airing conflicts, hearing and considering widely divergent points of view, finding and highlighting alternatives already in place; it all adds up...
Don't forget music. And dancing. And laughter. And love.
David Sirota did a piece for Salon last month that names names and shows the faces of The Gods Who Walk Among Us. With the temerity of Standard and Poor's Downgrade still causing White-Hot Fury Among the Masses (well, that may be a stretch), I thought it might be useful to name those names over here, too, just so the documentary evidence will be housed in more than one site.
Ready? Begin:
Stephen Schwarzman and his New York Times Mini-Me Defender, Andrew Ross Sorkin
The Drunks at the Boston Bruins; hedge fund manager David Tepper; the Iggles DeSean Jackson
Michael Bloomberg, King of New York
Anthony Scaramucci. He Who Speaks for Wall Street.
