Friday, June 27, 2008

Blog Comment of the Day

A lot of froth and fury about the old RCP over at Harry's Place, but I really liked this comment from Shuggy - one of the Drink Sots - in the midst of the thread:

But that does not mean that the opinions of every affiliated person should be dismissed. To do that is just tripping into another form of identity politics.

"I’m not so sure about that. The LM crowd are like so many former Marxists: you’d think if someone no longer believed in Marxism they’d retain a commitment to social justice, the emancipation of the working class etc. But what seems to happen so often is that it is the economic determinism that dies last. The LM crew derive their morality from being on what they see as the right side of history. This is why, for example, that most of them seem to spend a great deal of their time prostrating themselves before the rising Chinese dragon. In this sense, I don’t think it’s guilt by association: we should look at every argument they ever make with the understanding that, at base, what moves and animates them - despite their protestations to the contrary - is the cynical worship of power, and power that has been completely emptied of anything one could associate with the left. This is why they backed the Serbs - they admired their Will to Power. It is for this reason they also backed Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf war. Nietzscheans is what they are. I think this should be remembered every time anyone finds their arguments ‘interesting’."

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