"The beasts have returned to take what is theirs"
On Aaron Lange's "Ain't it Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk in the Secret City"
If you’ve gone to a concert, a play, a lecture lately you’ve likely had the evening begin with someone from the venue coming on stage and “acknowledging” that the building is standing on grounds at one time occupied by an American Indian tribe. Every time I encounter this, I hope someone in the audience stands and asks the speaker if they are planning on giving the land back. A plaque in the lobby would accomplish the same thing, and be more permanent. But it wouldn’t offer the pleasure of public flagellation.
This is what happens when politics, which is a belief in the possibility of change, whether good or bad, is replaced by performance. In the case of the current left, religious performance, in which past sin and the stain it has left behind is taken more seriously than present crime, and when working to make sure those crimes are not repeated is considered less important than publicly proclaiming the rottenness of society. In other words, the public flagellation at the heart of much progressive politics denies the possibility of progress. What it does offer is the chance to demonstrate that, by the possession of such knowledge, your own moral superiority, a chance to declaim that you are in no way implicated in your own history.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Crackers in Bed to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.