Movements, like human relationships, are nearly unfathomable. And while they persist, we need to consider the morality of decisions that may undermine them and alter their relationship with themselves and the world they seek to reshape.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A gun that's unloaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'.
Progressives considering to not vote for Biden must again consider the wisdom of intellectual, academic, mentor and luminary to many on the left Noam Chomsky. In a recent interview at The Intercept, he has likened #NeverBiden Sanders supporters to Communists of the 1930s who refused to ally with social-democrats, which led to the ability of the National Socialists (Nazis) to consolidate power. The rest, we all know about.
Leaving aside the nearly hyperbolic fear-mongering here, there are a couple (perhaps purely academic) things to consider about this, particularly in the year 2020.
First, history is not prescriptive for the present. No matter how similar the context may seem, it will never be the same. Our access to the past is itself already mediated and conditioned by the our point of access from the present, serendipity in the research process, and the amount of time we have to dedicate to any project that might approach an archaeological excavation of a past historical moment. And even the deepest, most poetic confluence of rationality and emotional involvement in an historical reconstruction will produce only a specific vantage point on a past populated by millions of contingent, independent and dependent entities.
Second, the future is unknowable. Objectively, one can rationalize a situation, model it scientifically, and attempt to predict it. But, as with all things, predictions are always partial, and, particularly when it comes to human behavior and social relationships (rather than, say, the weather or physical processes) reflect the modeler's own biases, the limits of their relationships, and the scope of their insight and emotional sensitivity. Even assuming one could grasp an historical moment in its totality, and sense with absolute certainty that its repetition was immanent, serendipity, chance, randomness—whatever you want to call it—can always intervene in a lightning strike.
And, so, while much of may seem awash in the postmodern sea of self-reflexivity1, it is worth considering the choice to not vote for Biden from this radically individualized position to glimpse a more profound morality for our movement.
Breakdown, Precarity, and Movement Morality
When social systems break-down, when states fail, and when people are forced to live and make decisions amidst a situation of precarity, one is forced to confront the world according to a different kind of morality. No longer do objective assessments mean much: by the time one thinks they understand the situation rationally, it changes. You plan to save money to pay the monthly rent, but, having nearly a zero balance, a child's sickness forces you to grasp for a new plan. Most people will already understand this intuitively: we see it reflected even in popular culture, in film and television. Its the tragi-comedy of the gig-worker or the Uber driver trying to make a living in Hollywood. Dreams don't mean much anymore and the real trick, usually, is learning to accept the limits of what one can do and to live in the moment hoping for the roll of the dice to go their way2.
This is also the context of the Western, the terrain on which governance has yet to exert any kind of social moral force. Each man must act according to a different code, learn the perverse darkness of those he meets, their strange motivations, and personalities. Nothing follows a script here, all knowledge is hard-won and fundamentally intuitive. The will of the Good proves itself through its resolve in the face of Evil; Evil proves insurmountable and snuffs-out the Good. And, sometimes, the Good must sacrifice some of itself in order to reach the poignancy of the Possible in hopes of a better day.
Bernie Sanders has managed to catalyze a solidarity in American culture that has been for a long-time alienated and atomized. There is a genuine feeling that, amidst all of this dysfunction and a precarity of existence, that we are all in this together. Movements are more than collections of individuals: a sense of shared purpose, shared experience, an ability to poetically communicate in a language beyond superficial information. And much like the lone cowboy on the frontier Sanders's movement now finds itself huddled in the darkness wondering in which direction to start out at first light.
A Cowboy's Reply
Sanders supporters are not being asked or invited to lend their support to Biden's campaign--it is not an open cooperation or a collaboration; rather, in most cases they are being publicly shamed, smeared, slandered, and sneered-at. Going along and hoping for the best is a recipe for being disrespected, demeaned further, and, generally, simply made to constantly confront the submissive role one has chosen to take. It is perverse aspect of human nature to have little respect for those that are not capable of resisting or asserting themselves. One doesn't need a theory of political change to know this. But it is also something that American culture seems to have forgotten. Making decisions that one does not feel committed to leads one outside of the reality of their own life: life becomes a schizophrenia of illusions with which one has little or no emotional connection. It is a fundamental structure of human existence and human relationships, for better or worse.
People die every day, maybe more will die under Donald Trump in 4-years, maybe not. Maybe 12+ years of the re-consolidation of neoliberal rule under Biden will produce more global death and dispossession, maybe not. But one thing is certain: when a movement of people with nothing left to lose is asked en-masse to make a decision that may fundamentally alter their own relationship with themselves and the world, this becomes itself a moral question. We must weigh the possibility that the progressive movement will be forced into a trajectory from which it may not regain its power to act as a movement3 over and against the longer-term good that this movement may be able to achieve, as well as the longer-term harm continued neoliberal rule in the form of Biden+VP administrations are likely to perpetuate. To discount this would be either cynical ('it's not really a 'movement'), overly optimistic or naive ('it's a movement, so surely it can survive something so small'), or a product of a liberalized thought that does not see movements as more than simple collections of individuals ('just vote and keep organizing').
More fundamentally: progressives should resist this siren call of European liberalism and its bottomless Universal moralizing as a guiding philosophy for its actions. It was never the over-moralizing city-folk who were ever able to endure the harsh realities of the Wild West. And while that may seem like a romanticized fairy tale, there is, as the Coen brothers teach us, much to be found in the authentic well-spring of our history and culture for inspiration. Progressives in the United States are Americans up against other Americans: Republicans that fight hard and seem to have no morality; and Democrats with their sly, lying smiles and dishonest dealings. One can't fight this system with a spineless, whimpering form of moralizing and an always do-good attitude that is easily held hostage and drained of any ability to act decisively...
And, so, while each man can only act according to his own context and what he sees fit, in this moment of dysfunction and breakdown and the failed state of America, our collective function and solidarity itself is something that we should think long and hard about before risking it for an unknowable future based on another country's history that we will never truly know. It is the only thing that we can right now be certain of. That, and the steadfast courage and conviction of a little John Wayne.
Footnotes
And, like much of that thought, seems content to strip everything to the point where it is rendered as purely political that has the benefit of inserting the speaker's own thought into the conversation at an equal, unjustified position--which is why, fundamentally, so many of these people aren't worthy of much respect, though they demand/feel entitled to it, which then breeds the resentment many feel towards those on the identity politics left and what seems like pure performance. ↩
In this context, beyond this predictable and basically saccharine lesson (which basically has the effect of neutering an individuals power, lowering their expectations and, with the help of Buddhist thought and other New Age 'philosophy', producing well-adjusted, medicated, functionaries of the system), a Frontier, Wild West morality has to do with freeing ourselves from no-longer prescriptive ideas for our actions and reacquainting ourselves with more instinctual modes of action. ↩
Furthermore, we need to weigh the fact that this hostage mentality and the submissiveness it produces is also precisely what fuels this system. It is a system of consumption and desires that seeks to keep us all on the edge, unable to make any further demands beyond the limited 'choices' (cans of tomatoes, Netflix documentaries, and candidates to vote for) that the system offers, all of which benefit it and perpetuate it. ↩