Countering Bigotry

Op-Ed by Nick Kristof.

A revolution against neoliberalism? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

A revolution against neoliberalism? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Brilliant.

Mazeppism is an Expression of Native Radicalism

As the Mazeppist has noted from time to time, this country has produced a native strain of Leftism with luminaries like H. D. Thoreau, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, W.E.B. DuBois, C. Wright Mills, Joe Hill, Emma Goldman, Norman O. Brown, etc. With the recent death of Howard Zinn, we lost a great scholar-activist. Noam Chomsky, God bless him, seems determined not to go gentle into that good night. But, on the whole, the large pool of native Leftists that the 1960's counter-culture promised us--the cohort preternaturally destined to realize the Invisible Whitmanian Republic right under the bulbous noses of the Nixonian Right--has proved, to say the least, disappointing. Anymore, Boomers give me an acute case of dyspepsia.

In the Spring 2011 issue of Tikkun magazine, Michael Lerner interviews Professor Chomsky ("Overcoming Despair as the Republicans Take Over"). There is some light there but, I have to say, not as much as I'd hoped to find. Fortunately, the same issue contains Richard Wolff's "Prospects for the U.S. Left: Not Bad At All." It's late here in Dar al-Hijra and I've had a long day--my usual Mazeppist skeptical irony may need recharging; be that as it may, I found Wolff's positive assessments reassuring. Wolff writes:

"Millions of people have been impacted by high unemployment and home foreclosures, by decreased job benefits and job security, and by the realization that none of these afflictions will end soon. A sense of betrayal is settling into the popular consciousness" (p. 21)

.

Sadly, if this is true, it is good news for the beleaguered American Left.

What Wolff terms the "hegemonic alliance of big business, the richest 5 percent of citizens, and the state" is, he asserts, "becoming more visible to the American public" and, as the visibility of the plutocratic corporatocracy increases, "public discourse in the United States has rediscovered and opened up" to "those voices on the U.S. left" who are reviving "debates over capitalism itself." The time is ripe, he says, for a "left resurgence ... in the consciousness of masses of American citizens" (p. 22).

Perhaps even more astonishing is Wolff's claim that the "U.S. Left is constructing analyses and programs that have large and growing audiences and constituencies in the country." These analyses and programs "increasingly include transformation of enterprises such that workers collectively, cooperatively, and democratically owning and operating enterprises would become a growing business sector." In addition, "the U.S. Left is working its way to a comprehensive alternative program to exit the [current economic] crisis, one taxing the corporations and the richest 5 percent--those who contributed most to the crisis, who are most able to pay for resolving it, and who have received the most state aid so far and therefore 'recovered' the most" (p. 44).

Wolff seems to find hope in the rise of the Tea Party; he finds it symptomatic of popular American discontent with the status quo and a blind groping towards radical solutions. He is confident that the Tea Party will only disappoint those who are presently looking towards it for solutions and, when the day of disillusionment arrives, he seems to feel that the Left will be poised to reap the harvest of the inevitable Tea Party fall-out.

From Richard Wolff's word-processor to God's ear, I say.

But I'm not holding my breath. Instead, I plan to sleep on this, get up again in the morning, and don the threadbare mantle of my Mazeppism.

Nobody said overthrowing Leviathan through non-violent persuasion was going to be easy.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

The Figure of the Youth as Virile Poet

i.e., as a figure of capable imagination. This is Mazeppa, the mythical figure.

"To define poetry as an unofficial view of being places it in contrast with philosophy and at the same time establishes the relationship between the two. In philosophy we attempt to approach truth through the reason. Obviously this is a statement of convenience. If we say that in poetry we attempt to approach truth through the imagination, this, too, is a statement of convenience. We must conceive of poetry as at least the equal of philosophy. If truth is the object of both and if any considerable number of people feel very sceptical of all philosophers, then, to be brief about it, a still more considerable number of people must feel very sceptical of all poets..." Wallace Stevens, The Necessary Angel, New York: Vintage Books (1951), pp. 41-42.

Even so,

"... what concerns us in poetry, as in everything else, is the belief of credible people in credible things. It follows that poetic truth is the truth of credible things, not so much that it is actually so, as that it must be so. It is toward that alone that it is possible for the intelligence to move." Wallace Stevens, The Necessary Angel, New York: Vintage Books (1951), p. 53.

Ivan Mazepa, the historical figure, is a matter of interest to those who wish to know something about the history of the Ukraine.

Mazeppa, the mythical figure, is a matter of interest to those who wish to know something about themselves as figures of capable imagination: as human beings whose suffering is not a matter of indifference, but of epic struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Mazeppa's "wild ride" may not have been an event in the life of Ivan Mazepa, as such; it is, however, an event in the life of every human being who loves and finds herself torn from her love despite all of her struggles to hang on.

When R. W. Emerson notes in his journal at the death of his little son Waldo: "I am Defeated all the time; yet to Victory I am born," he is Mazeppa, regaining consciousness in a Cossack's hut, battered and beaten but still alive and, against all odds, on the mend.

"...poetic truth is the truth of credible things, not so much that it is actually so, as that it must be so. It is toward that alone that it is possible for the intelligence to move."

Ivan Mazepa

The historical figure.

A Hero of Mazeppism (Old and New)

The "old" Mazeppism was the movement for Ukrainian independence (late 19th century-early 20th century).

The Ukrainian-born Russian writer N. V. Gogol became identified with that movement due to his deep sympathies for his homeland.

But there is much about Gogol, as a writer and a literary personality, that resonates with "new" Mazeppism.

Anyone who identifies with republican independence from empire is a Mazeppist fellow traveler whether they know it or not...

Thousands protest in Morocco - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Thousands protest in Morocco - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Rise up young lions of the Maghreb!

Mazeppism is an Existentialism...

and Existentialism, as Sartre taught us, is a humanism. As a "Romantic Orientalism" purged of imperialistic tendencies by the refining fire of historical reflection, Mazeppism is post-Romantic. But every post-Romanticism remains Romantic in the same way that every post-Enlightenment is a child of the Enlightenment: Romanticism is post-Romanticism's sine qua non. And Romanticism is a post-Enlightenment mode.

In sum: Mazeppism is an Existentialism, which is a humanism. It is an Orientalist mode of Romantic humanism but post-Romantic and post-Enlightenment.

Let us be candid: we stand on the shoulders of giants with clay-feet, but giants nonetheless.

The Mazeppist

Hosni Mubarak resigns as president - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Hosni Mubarak resigns as president - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

MABROUK TO THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

From Lord Byron's Mazeppa

They found me senseless on the plain.
They bore me to the nearest hut,
They brought me into life again
Me - one day o'er their realm to reign!
Thus the vain fool who strove to glut
His rage, refining on my pain,
Sent me forth to the wilderness,
Bound, naked, bleeding, and alone,
To pass the desert to a throne, -
What mortal his own doom may guess?
Let none despond, let none despair!

Abou Ben Adhem by James Henry Leigh Hunt

Abou Ben Adhem by James Henry Leigh Hunt

In elementary school, this poem was parsed for me by my teachers from about 1st to 3rd grade (as I recall). What I also recall was that the Islamic elements of the poem were repressed, making it difficult for me to understand. Not that I knew anything about Islam in elementary school, but I knew that I did not understand the poem's peculiar cultural flavor, much less its unusual religious perspective. And it seemed to me that my teachers avoided discussing these most intriguing and yet foreign elements of the poem. They wanted me to focus on the poem's message--probably because they themselves did not understand its religious perspective and cultural flavor. So I recall resenting the poem because it occasioned frustration in me. I think it was in third grade that I finally gave in and simply focused on the message: at which time the poem seemed like a revelation to me. Then I regretted not appreciating the poem sooner. It could have been taught better; but it is probably a wonder that it was taught at all.