Power as a Necessary Means to Justice

Fredrik de Boer wrote this anguished piece in the aftermath of the insurrection in the US to overturn an election that Trump lost. While he condemns the levels to which Trump and his supporters will go, his article was more about “my despair over the response from the left”. He wasn’t talking of the American left’s reaction to the rioting in particular, but what the left seems to have become.

 

The left, he says, seems to be only interested in identifying injustices:

“I sometimes wonder if people understand that there is more to politics than saying “this is wrong.”

But they show no interest in proposing solutions:

“Proposing meaningful solutions is much more fraught. Solutions are hard. Solutions are messy. Solutions are inherently unsatisfying.”

 

The left demonizes all forms of power so much that they then have no option but to “constantly make appeals to the heavens because they believe, very deeply, that if you identify injustice often enough some cosmic authority will hear you”. But, of course, as we know all too well:

“It doesn’t matter if you tell the universe that there is an injustice… There is no impartial authority to whom you can appeal.”

What good does listing the injustices do anyway?

“What difference did they think it would make? Appealing to the country? But the country has heard this complaint for years and done nothing.”

A cynic might even wonder:

“People are fixated on naming injustice rather than solving injustice because this is what the social systems reward… They receive praise for doing so.”

In addition, if it’s only chest beating and lamenting that the left can do, then they drive away those who agree with their complaints but also want action:

“Justice, as a target, has made the left into a cult, one that appeals constantly to a higher power that never appears and never delivers on anything.”

 

To bring about change (and justice), you need to wield power. But the left seems wedded to the idea that power will corrupt. How then can anything be changed? Or is it that the left truly appreciates that line from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility”? After all:

“You can speak truth to power but never have to grapple with the weight of wielding it.”

 

The fact remains, as de Boer correctly says, that we need governance:

“What do you want?… How can you gain more power to get what you want if you need it? Those are the only political questions I care about anymore. Unfortunately, the left seems not only unable to answer them, but indifferent to whether they have answers at all.”