If you were conscious and used the internet between mid-2015 and the end of 2016, you might have noticed the presence of a particularly dank meme (well, several, let’s be real) in the form of a guy who probably hadn’t heard the term until it was applied to him.
I am, of course, referring to the unlikely political fortunes of the junior senator from Vermont, the brusquely-spoken old guy who for a brief moment somehow turned the majority of our supposedly egocentric millennial generation into enthusiastic critics of late-stage capitalism.
The near-simultaneous surges in support of leftist politicians like Jeremy Corbyn in the U.K., Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France or the Podemos party in Spain further demonstrate that socialism is no longer a dirty word in electoral politics. In fact, it may ultimately be the only long-term alternative to the current wave of authoritarian populism currently sweeping the developed world.
Socialism is, however, very much a dirty word in most media outlets, if it’s even mentioned at all. Journalism that is totally configured for ad revenue and profit generation is journalism that will censor ideas hostile to its owners/shareholders. (It’s simple business sense.)
But unlike the disappointing real world, our mainstream newspaper will apparently publish incendiary left-wing diatribes that I imagine the editors of The Wall Street Journal would only see as fit to light their $500 cigars with (or whatever cartoonishly malevolent banker types do these days — 24 karat vapes, perhaps?).
This is why I’m proud to introduce Sharp Left, a bi-weekly series of my very own refreshing and exceedingly pithy hot takes on the accumulation of crises that the tabloid-esque dishrags of our decadent political culture refuse to acknowledge.
If this thought makes you uneasy, rest assured that this column will not feature articles like: “Seven Ways Bernie Can STILL Win, So Take That Hillary,” “Lenin Was Right All Along, but Mao was Righter,” or a reprinting of my 9th grade book report on the Communist Manifesto. (I got an A-.)
Instead, I’m interested in discussing the multitude of heterodox thoughts, actions and developments that I see as broadly comprising a new leftist political program, one founded on radical democracy, nonviolence and solidarity, and opposed to the deeply interconnected damages that continued faith in modern capitalism rains down everyday on our environment and billions of marginalized people.
More provocatively, I want to critically examine Middlebury’s role as an institution deeply situated within the prevailing discourse of neoliberal capitalism. Seeing as our school now bills itself as an outspoken proponent of free speech, it hopefully won’t mind me attempting to expose contradictions between their lovely stated goals and less rosy ideological realities, right?
At this point, I’m sure I’ve whet your appetite for the undergraduate-written socialist polemics you never knew you needed — unless you’re reading The Campus for the new conservative column, in which case you probably haven’t gotten this far anyway. Regardless, please grab a copy in two weeks to see if I can live up to my own hype, unlike, well, socialism (until now!).
