Re: <nettime> The Left Needs a New Strategy

[Roman Seidl <roman@granul.at>]

> But yes, it sure would be great if over 50% of society would believe 
> stuff like healthcare should be free, housing is a right, education 
> should be available to all, etc.
>
> But wait! Billions of people already do, yeah some in the US, but 
> billions in the global left, in China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, 
> quite a few in Bolivia and Venezuala, and millions more in movements 
> like MST and unions like NUMSA, they already believe what you want to 
> convince people of! What's more, they have even won power and put much 
> if it into practice. This is why the liberal and progressive sections 
> of the US left are trained to hate and denounce them.

These messages make feel like we are in the 1980s again. This must be 
what it felt to hear the messages of the communist parties in Western 
Europe when they reported about the great achievements in the 
"socialist" brotherlands.

I can hardly find any match between these narratives and anything people 
I trust who used to live or live in countries like China tell me. Even 
simple questions like how the healthcare system work in China seem to be 
blured by "alternative facts".

This is all too bizarre. Maybe there ist now a post-stalinist or maoist 
bubble emerging out of the dynamics of social media madness. Who knows.

Roman


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