Upon reading “Recognizing Patriotism” (ODE, Oct. 10), I felt immediately that I had to comment on behalf of the extreme left. Although Willse noted that he commented on a current within the left rather than the group in its entirety, he still paints an unfair characterization of our political ideologies.
Willse begins by arguing that many extreme leftists blame some or all Americans for the “past transgressions” of a select few. This is simply not the case. The confusion lies in that when those on the extreme left say “America,” they wish to convey a meaning different from the word as it is commonly understood. We view America not as a group of citizens residing on a particular land mass and sharing a particular cultural history, but as a particular set of socioeconomic institutions, the distilled expression of which being the activities of the federal government and capitalist class who wields it as a tool. When we blame America, we blame not America’s average citizen. In fact, we do not even blame the corrupt individuals who wield power in our society. Rather, we blame the systemic tendencies of political and economic institutions that serve to cultivate artificial hierarchy and greed, and the corrupt lust for power within that hierarchy.
Willse goes on to argue that it is irrational for the American critic to argue against the sum activities of the U.S. government when it is through this government that we are granted numerous freedoms, including freedom of speech. He gives support, contending that the United States has one of the best human rights records among history’s world powers, and he goes on to make a vague contrast between the American way of life and totalitarian repression: “Freedom is better than slavery, free speech is better than censorship, one debate is better than political imprisonment.” Willse’s argument is essentially a straw man. Granted, America may offer a greater degree of freedom than the array of nation-states with which Willse compares it, but the fact remains that history has shown us that the central tendency of any concentrated power is to lead to heinous abuse of that power; America remains corrupt. To make an analogy, one may prefer to have his or her arm broken rather than a giant rusty, barbed spike be driven through his or her lower intestines, but neither situation is desirable.
Additionally, in this same line of reasoning, Willse succumbs to the common misconception that it is through hierarchical structures such as the state that we derive our freedom. Granted, nation-states may grant their citizens rights, but these rights are only necessary in the context of such hierarchical structures. For example, the right to freedom of speech is only necessary when hierarchical structures, be they government-repression or restricted media access due to monopolization of capital, prevent individuals from speaking freely. In other words, inalienable rights in the abstract are only useful to us when the ability to achieve welfare on one’s own terms, to live freely in the concrete, has been stripped from us. In sum, we, the sociopolitical extremists of the left, oppose America not because of some history of sporadic evil-doing in the past, but because we can see that current injustices stem from systemic causes rooted in present power structures, and if these injustices are to be eliminated, so must these power structures as well.