Left romanticism about glorious failure blocks institutional learning

Evidence

In some of my earlier work, as in that of others, there is perhaps a tendency to romanticize resista to read all forms of resistance as signs ofineff veness of systems of power and of the resilience and creativity of the human spirit in its refusal to be dominated. … By reading resistance in this way, we collapse distinctions between forms of resistance and foreclose certain questions about the workings of power. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 76 (#expands, via linked claim)

The political left, which does admit to our racist history, doesn’t do much better when it comes to understanding the situation. The left-wing narrative tends to center on blatant race discrimination by bad actors in the past: the FHA denying home loans to black Americans in the 1950s and ’60s, or subprime lenders targeting black Americans during the Great Recession. This past discrimination has led to a disproportionate percentage of black Americans (21 percent) living in poverty, compared with white Americans (8 percent). The economic gap has grown worse over time, the argument goes, simply because wealth begets more wealth, and black Americans are starting from behind. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 61 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Leftists must transform during defeat rather than retreat or adapt — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1561; Left movements must reject glorified failure and build coordinating memory institutions.; Anti-capitalist movements fail for lacking institutional memory. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1685 (+2 more)

Related

• Left narratives blame past bad actors rather than present policy design (similarity 0.81)
• Romanticizing resistance collapses meaningful distinctions between its forms (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Romanticizing resistance collapses meaningful distinctions between its forms #expands (0.78) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 76
• Left narratives blame past bad actors rather than present policy design #qualifies (0.75) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 61