just this now, maybe that later

Max and I were student radicals together. As an adult he went toward a social-democratic type of Red and I went Green.

https://sawicky.substack.com/p/socialism-is-still-real-but-it-is

Disappointed, I think he lost the fire and the vision.

Disappointed, I explored different paradigms.

His conception of social change now is social democratic incrementalism.

Well, we agree about incrementalism. And I agree with him that social democracy is better. That’s why I can relate to DSA.

A problem for him (and for DSA) is that social democracy has been around, has been in power, for a long time now. There has developed a sense that it’s somehow not fully satisfactory.

Max has the idea that the program is just to go more and more in that direction … toward more and more socialization. It would be better and better.

Maybe. But we have to ask why so many feel otherwise.

What social democracy is and what its direction is … is clear. Why, by now, shouldn’t a consensus have developed that it’s better? Why is the support for it so tepid?

It’s because the problems run deeper.

* * * *

One can support social democracy … and work for it … and, meanwhile, advocate for a vision that goes beyond it.

We can keep two ideas in our head at the same time. We can do pragmatic stuff and also orient toward a more abstract and long-range level of praxis.

We can hold out a more visionary idea: incremental striving for an eco-socialist transition which opens doors toward an eco-communitarian transformation.

Max would say: “Maybe. But so what. Very few will get inspired by or motivated by such a long-range project.”

And I do understand that reality. But without some vision, some ideal, things sure are dreary … including his social democracy.