Why the left languishes - Part 1

Hey Folks -


The Socratic notion that we cannot be imparted knowledge but must find, learn, or know it for ourselves is true, I believe. And therein lies the rub: we must learn everything for ourselves or we must take it on faith from others.


Some of my contemporaries were, I’m sure, more precocious than I in discovering deeper cultural, social, political realities, but the necessary learning process – as opposed to faithful digestion of dogma - is the same for all of us. I once wrote a poem - at least that's what I call it - that describes the journey:

The Latest Word from Head Quarters

Life
is
a
series
of
somewhat
mistaken
notions
which
consecutively
replace
one
another
as
we
age

Thinkers – as opposed to believers – are always approaching the truth. The faithful get it all at once, or so they believe. All their lives thinkers are heading toward the truth; all their lives believers have "possessed" the truth (some of which may have been revealed recently, but much of which has “always” been “known”).

In the Socratic sense the active thinkers travel alone searching; the believers sit together passively while someone else funnels in the contemporary “reality.” This is a double-edged sword for both groups.


Believers gain the security of “knowing” and are freed from any responsibility to learn or even pay attention. At the same time, they are naively unaware that - should the person or organization passing them the “truth” be foolish, deranged, or have ulterior motives – they could be taken unaware by serious consequences. Here is a Stephen Crane poem that speaks to that:




A learned man came to me once.
He said: “I know the way, - come.”
And I was overjoyed at this.
Together we hastened.
Soon, too soon, were we
Where my eyes were useless,
And I knew not the ways of my feet.
I clung to the hand of my friend;
But at last he cried: “I am lost.”



It’s said, “Ignorance is bliss,” and we know the three Monkey Brothers – See, Hear, and Speak No-evil. So, for believers, it’s a gamble: put your faith in the one true slot machine and relax while the rewards pour in. If you’re lucky, your faith may never be shaken, and you’ll reap a carefree life of whatever you wished for. Most "faithful" folks, though, aren’t lucky; and at some point find themselves in a situation similar, to some degree, to the one Crane describes.


When reality intrudes on faith, some may turn from their faith, but most adhere to it even more strongly. Never having decided much rationally, having their faith pulled away leaves them with nothing to fall back on. Moreover, while blind faith does free one from uncertainty and a responsibility to think, it also forces believers to expend a lot of energy “defending” the faith against unbelievers. “Defending” becomes habitual: George W. Bush IS a great president; my religion IS the one true way; poor people ARE lazy; guns DON’T kill people; public schools ARE failing; socialism IS bad; we are RIGHT to be at War; the earth IS 7,000 years old; there is NO global warming; etc.


When their own lives run afoul of their long-held faith, it’s not surprising that most of these folks automatically make excuses and soldier on. Whatever tragedy they face at this late date, abandoning their crutch would only make matters worse.


Thinkers have problems too, largely because they are on a lifelong journey and the truth they find - besides never being complete - is incremental, nuanced, and partial. The journey requires the psychological strength to forever accept uncertainty and the physical energy to actively pay attention to the world, studying, questioning, considering, seeking to understand throughout life. This is the work that the faithful avoid; it is also the work that makes believers expend time and energy “defending” their arbitrarily chosen beliefs from developments in the actual world.


I think it’s safe to say that there are many more believers in the world than thinkers. Rampant poverty and exploitation don’t encourage education but do stimulate blind adoption of “promising” religious, economic, social or political dogma.

But perhaps more important is that non-thinkers are more easily manipulated, and like members of the Borg or victims of the Blob, they are easily united. Since the right has always been home to the rich and powerful who overwhelmingly control the media; powerful, unrelenting, and effective manipulation of the trusting sheep is a foregone conclusion.

Already outnumbered, thinkers are rarely united. Whereas the dogmatic views of any group are, by definition, unified from the start. Thinkers seeking truth find themselves on an individual continuum of “truth.” Depending on many factors - age, education, upbringing, experience, and native intelligence to name a few – the “connection” among those on the left is much weaker, if not missing altogether because of their varied and different stages of awareness . Each one, caught up in the excitement of the latest personal insight, can neither accept the less-advanced views left behind nor embrace the more-advanced views that are yet to be recognized.


Being outnumbered and incapable of uniting, those who pay attention and think enough to actually see the arbitrary and pernicious nature of official “reality” seem, nevertheless, doomed to live in Bedlam - along with the more numerous true-believing inmates - fussing among themselves about how to break out, but never escaping.

Think about it.

- Uke Man