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08/30/2005 Archived Entry: "The left can't get anything done, either"

WE'VE ALL BEWAILED THE FACT THAT LIBERTARIANS CAN'T SEEM TO GET ANYTHING DONE as a group. Mass movements R-not-US. "The left," we think. "Now those guys can rouse a hundred thousand people at the drop of a flier and shake the world."

Well ... mebbe. Dave Gross, whose war-tax resistance and San Francisco lifestyle throw him into company -- and into meetings -- with a variety of leftists got a mite frustrated the other day and vented his opinionated opinion for our amusement and edification:

If the San Francisco Left ever became relevant or threatening to the Powers That Be, they could destroy it simply by sending someone to every meeting to say something like “boy I wish those Palestinians would stop being such terrorists” or “why does this group have so many white people / men in it?” or any of a vast number of other triggers and without fail the bees will start to buzz, the hive will go berzerk, and it’s honey time for the bear.

We’ve been preaching the virtue of tolerance so adamantly and so long that we’ve forgotten the virtue of intolerance.

What I wouldn’t give for someone who would stand up and say — “to heck with being inclusive and making sure everybody gets heard. We’re here to try to get something done. If you want to get something done, you’re in the right place. If you want to talk about the harmonica virgins or if you think your favorite issue or minority group isn’t being respected here, find another group, because we don’t have time for that now.”

Okay, so we libertarian "right wingers" are so busy purging everybody who doesn't meet our standards of purity that we can't get anything done. But maybe that's not all that much worse than trying to include every faction, sub-faction, sub-sub-sub-minority faction, and wild-eyed loony who pops up to speak.

A good rant, Dave, including a link to an equally good rant by William S. Burroughs.

Posted by Claire @ 04:15 PM CST
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