Why are socialists self-abasing?

If socialism is going to be anything other than a pipe dream, socialists have to start experimenting with behavior that is out of character for our type. And no! I don’t mean "working within the system" or accepting "incremental change." — Rather, I think socialists need to cultivate four qualities: courage, self-love, will to power, and disassociation.

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Socialists are natural perfectionists. We believe in acting right, in making the world fair, in fixing what is broken, and in changing anything that creates injustice. We don’t accept the logic of expediency. We refuse to accept the world as it is, and we demand that it be held to a higher standard. 

But high standards always come with a temptation toward asceticism. We are so thoughtful and considerate that we always have occasion to condemn and shame ourselves. Maybe we took up too much space, or said something insensitive, or neglected to offer a hand to someone in need. There are guilt holes all around us which we might fall into any time. 

One cannot be a revolutionary without self-love. A revolution is not for the insecure. It requires acting from a place of assurance. 

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Why are socialists self-abasing? Because it is not possible to understand oneself as responsible, to practice empathy toward others, and to care about living ethically, without taking on a considerable amount of anxiety and self-doubt. Socialists don’t want to do anything that might have harmful repercussions, so we interrogate ourselves, and we decline to assert ourselves. We lack the abandon of those who take it upon themselves to lead. 

Courage demands a level of presumption. Faced with the choice to safely withhold from acting, or to risk danger and act, the courageous do the latter. They can do so because they presume that, whatever happens, things will probably be okay. Or, they don't think about the consequences. They presume that there aren't any. That they are wrong does not matter. By acting, they shape history.

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Socialist critical theorists usually carry along an excess of self-criticism. As most people are less demanding of their government than socialists, most people are also less demanding of themselves. The social consciousness that socialists maintain stretches over into our personal lives. We don’t behave in our relationships like others do. We have different standards and customs, as we practice alternative lifestyles. We do not just question the received wisdom of politics, we question the received wisdom of our daily ethics.

The socialist assumption that there is fluidity between the personal and the political is one of our defining characteristics, but a consequence of subscribing to this notion is that we carry a cross few others are willing to bear.

Socialists come off as self-righteous because we propose that what normally passes for righteousness is insufficient. Humans always rebuke those who try to appeal to a higher standard than they apply to themselves.

But it’s not that most people think they are not righteous, and socialists think we are. Most people err in assuming their own righteousness, whereas socialists err in our fear of being unrighteous.

Socialist anxiety is the dizziness of moral discernment. The way Christians are afraid for their standing with God, we are afraid for our standing with justice. Being too self-critical, we undermine our resolve. We over-deliberate and disempower ourselves. 

Revolution is a lot of blue-collar, military-grade, manual labor. It requires strength, a thick skin, and confidence. These dispositions are not compatible with how sensitive socialists tend to be. We need more of the disposition of the soldier, who is taught to suppress their personal scruples and do instinctively what the moment requires. 

We should incorporate a little stoicism into our ethos, and become more dauntless and less excitable. We can’t just constantly react with outrage. World-building requires quiet, inner strength, and steady, diligent effort.

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For most people, indifference comes naturally; socialists are those for whom it is not possible. But spending too much time empathizing with sufferers can make us weak—not because empathy is inherently weak, but because overexposure to suffering is deflating. We grow weary, sad, and burnt out. To overcome this, we must be able to disassociate. We must have regular times when we turn the empathy faucet off. We cannot be internalizing all the tragedy that occurs on a daily basis on this unfortunate planet. We must practice being unaffected by tragedy if we are to cultivate resilience.

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I've often quoted Angela Davis: “I am no longer accepting what I cannot change, I am changing what I cannot accept.” Lately, I've noticed, Davis presents these positions as contrasting one another, but the second is not actually incompatible with the first. If you are changing something, you prove it was something you could change. You can accept what you cannot change and still change what you cannot accept. In both, what you cannot change is untouched.

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Individualists suppose that they are not socially responsible, and so they are relaxed. They are comfortable taking up space, and imposing themselves. And they allow themselves a measure of insensitivity toward others. Consequently, they are bolder, more decisive, and they exercise more power. They take risks, because they are not restrained by a fear of doing wrong. They are more afraid of being powerless than being unjust, so they are more likely to seize power and maintain it. 

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I find it odd when progressives defend the American left by saying, at least we have never stormed the Capital … as if that should be a point of pride.

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Is not the Marxist doctrine of the inevitability of socialist revolution, a form of eschatology? The Christian idea of the eschaton maintains that it is the perfect end toward which God is guiding all of history. I sense a remnant of this theology in dialectical materialism—a faith that all things are working together to eventually produce the perfect conditions for the workers to seize the means of production. This faith is an antidote to the will to power. Hold onto it if you prefer dreaming of revolution to making it real.

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Socialists are long on idealism and righteous indignation, but short on industriousness and ambition. We assume that desire for power is inherently evil, so we avoid it, and we feel guilty when we are drawn to it. I once had a comrade say to me, “As a white man, I don’t think I should be trying to get power.” No wonder most white people in power are racist, the anti-racist white people are standing by for a black messiah.

Jack Amos Holloway