The Lamentations of the Women

Brotherman Rojo brings to my attention this rather extraordinary statement of triumph-by-defeat by the Little Colonel of Donk politics himself.

In short, traditional activism was predicated on influencing the gatekeepers -- getting concessions from management in a labor dispute, or getting editors, producers, or pundits to alter their coverage of an issue or event, or pressuring the government to change course in its actions (like ending the war in Vietnam), and so on. There was never any expectation that the gatekeepers were going anywhere. The best we could do was force a change in their behavior.

Today, we are able to target the gatekeepers directly, working to change their behavior, yes (like with Time and Joe Klein), but also working to eliminate them or, when that's not possible, bypass them. We are building an alternate media, alternate party infrastructure, and alternate institutions of power and influence. As I wrote seemingly a lifetime ago in Crashing the Gate, the gatekeepers were welcome to work with us, get out of our way, or get crushed and rendered irrelevant.

Oh-ho. It must be something to live in an asylum where all the inmates think they're Napoleon. You do have to give credit where due, though. Even when they lose, they win. Joseph Heller, eatcherheartout.

Alternate. Alternative. Like alternate fuels. Alternative power sources. These are the stock phrases of pocket revolutionaries who oddly--or not--enough are the staunchest defenders of the status quo. You can imagine this future quite easily enough. Everyone will still drive cars, but they will be fuel cell cars. Everyone will be able to live in a very nice house in whatever city or town or suburb he pleases, but there will be no predatory mortgage industry, no adjustible rates, no foreclosure. We will only practice "fair trade," but prices will never increase. We will destroy WalMart with no pocketbook repurcussions. Nothing, in fact, will have any repurcussions but the positive kind. There will be no displacement, no discomfort, no conflict, no tradeoffs, no concessions, no sacrifices, no alterations in the way we live. We will do precisely as we've always done, only better, cleaner, quieter. How's that myth of progress for you?

Anyway, the hilarious thing about Kos is that he believes himself to be something like a left-leaning libertarian but he sounds like Soviet Apparatchik. Join the Revolution; Leave the Country; Or Be Crushed! Fortunately, the Orange Army ain't the Red Army. What it has in bluster, it lacks in firepower. What it has in fantasy, it lacks in practical imagination. Yes, it's true that the playground is next to the ballfield, but it's also true that the sandbox isn't the batter's box no matter how many twigs the toddlers swing around.