10 reasons why leftist and progressive social justice activism is doomed as a real force for long term, truly meaningful, collective, and positive social change in America

By Sage Mahosadha

I am a 56 year old, black, same gender loving, radical faerie/Christo-Buddhist man with a master’s degree in clinical psychology, who grew up in the American South and who, among other very interesting and teaching life experiences, lived as a homeless person in Oakland, CA for the entire year of 2014 (no, it was not a social experiment).

I do not have a conventional job (conjob) and I live far below the poverty level, typically earning less than $6000 annually. This is mostly by choice though not completely so. I do not have the inclination toward nor the financial luxury of engaging in alcohol consumption nor the taking of other drugs. I am not in recovery and have never needed to be. I do not have a criminal record. I do not have any official mental health diagnosis. I do have a chronic and persistent brain injury and sometimes experience excruciating chronic pain as a result of a stroke I experienced in 2011. I am not on disability nor SSI. One could walk into a state disability office today literally carrying ones own severed head under their arm and be denied disability at this juncture in America right now around such things. That’s a whole other issue and story. And I have self-identified as a social justice activist since age nine or ten when I strongly disagreed with my maternal, tenured university professor, African art scholar, and community organizer grandfather whom I worshiped, adored, deeply respected, and loved like no other man I’ve loved neither before nor since. The disagreement occurred at the family formal dinner table one evening. We disagreed over the topic of capital punishment. My grandfather absolutely supported it. I adamantly repudiated it and still do. I am extremely proud of the fact that my very first and strong social justice stance was being unequivocally against the death penalty without exception and that I took this stance as a relatively young boy. Today I refer to myself as a sacred activist rather than a progressive or leftist social justice activist because that feels much more like an honest and true descriptor now, and also because I have become so disillusioned with the progressive social justice activist community, as a whole, in this country.

I fairly strongly believe that the leftist and progressive social justice activist community is doomed as a real force for long term, meaningful, collective, and positive social change in America. The overarching reason is that we are unable, as the far flung, differently opinioned, highly diverse community that we are (BTW, those are all good things in my belief) to come together in order to do so. The ruthless, incredibly vicious, wildly misogynist and completely over-the-top attacks on Hillary Clinton by various legions of Bernie Sanders supporters is merely the election year manifestation of a much larger, much more toxic, if that is even imaginable, persistent, and multi-dimensional problem here. 

So here are ten of the biggest issues/challenges I currently see within the leftist/progressive social justice activist community in America right now. I see the potential for these collectively driving progressive social justice activism out of contention as a really significant, extremely positive player in ultimately bringing about long term and positive social change in America. Some items I have listed seem very self-explanatory to me. And so, in such cases, I saw no need for further elaboration and so didn’t elaborate. Where I did not see that as being the case, I have appropriately elaborated.

(1)   Too much unresolved, inadequately addressed, and/or unconsciously disowned trauma among too many rank and file participants “in the struggle” and among too many leaders as well.

We probably live in a world where everyone is living with trauma to some degree or another. This is because we all are living in a sick world to some degree and we all in turn are suffering the consequences of that reality and also because we have no other world to escape to (unless there are alien beings living among us who have the ability to transport themselves between this world and their home world, which I believe might be entirely possible, I’m simply unaware of such at this time). And at the same time I believe leftist/progressive social justice activism work in this country does tend to, for obvious reasons, attract people who are significantly more experiencing the reality of living with trauma than those whom it might be said are primarily suffering from relatively baseline level trauma. What I mostly observe in the leftist/progressive social justice activist community in general is unresolved and inadequately addressed trauma that likely gets played out in all areas of such a person’s life including and absolutely in their activism lives—how could it not? Essentially, I don’t believe people are getting the professional and other help that is available to them and often, instead, use their progressive activism as a way to consciously or unconsciously address or self-medicate their unresolved or inadequately addressed trauma.I also believe this essentially means that such people do not really know how to effectively deal with being triggered, which becomes an ever increasing problem in this kind of work. Further, this self-medicating approach simply isn’t working, which is an understatement, in the extreme.

A secondary issue I see is that leftist/progressive activism, partially because of the high number of people living with trauma in its ranks and partially because of other reasons, is also either consciously or unconsciously sort of a comfortable place for people who have not adequately addressed their trauma because the community as a whole, to my eyes, has, I believe, a built in and ultimately unhealthy enabling stance and culture towards people living with trauma. I believe the progressive activist community in America is too afraid to call people on the socially and organizationally problematic tenets of their inadequately addressed and unresolved trauma. This is both because the people who would necessarily be tasked with helping such people with such things are themselves not adequately addressing their own trauma and because there are simply too many such people in progressive activism.

(2)   Too much normalized, accepted, and even validated, and praised oppressor based values present in too many people in the community, especially among recognized leaders.

Here is an extremely important quote by the late, great, and truly revolutionary Grace Lee Boggs:

 Being a victim of oppression in the United States is not enough to make you revolutionary, just as dropping out of your mother’s womb is not enough to make you human. People who are full of hate and anger against their oppressors or who only see Us versus Them can make a rebellion but not a revolution. The oppressed internalize the values of the oppressor. Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.

Essentially, I believe, there are simply just too many people in American leftist social justice activism who either don’t know, recognize, nor realize the overwhelming truth, power, and explicit wisdom of this quote nor its movement shattering/re-shaping implications if it were taken seriously.

(3)   Too much acceptance of “sameness” in terms of ideas, strategies, and people. And also there being too much love for trendiness and the slavish worshiping of the latest cliquish, most self-absorbed, divisive, blaming, and finger pointing terminology and nomenclature that arrives on the scene. I also see two related and additional other issues. The first is the near worshiping of popular people in the community who tend to cater to the most unoriginal and popular ideas and strategies. And conversely and simultaneously there being great intolerance for ideas that are different, new, unique, and interesting and worse, intolerance for the people with those different and interesting ideas. All of this is an indication of the presence of a culture of trendiness worship, and a very strong cult of personality within progressive social justice activist circles. In other words, too much capitulation to pervasive and terminally middle school-ish type mentality and consciousness.  

I believe this is self-explanatory. One word that can be used to describe much of what I have described here is the word policing--policing of thoughts, speech, concepts, etc. I believe this occurs because progressive activism has grown and produced too many powerful and/or too heavily influential and bullying personality types in its ranks, is influenced too much by the part of American culture that is exactly the same way, and because of lack of creativity, spiritual acumen, and courage among too many progressive social justice leaders.

(4)   Too much pandering to traditional conceptualizations of power with regard to who has it and who doesn't (in general) and too much ignoring of other, very real, different, probably counterintuitive, probably non-traditional, probably too threatening, too scary, too postmodern and likely unconsciously disowned forms and expressions of power that heavily and negatively impact the day-to-day functioning and long term planning of the community.

I believe this is mostly self-explanatory as well, although I will also elaborate some. People still like to simply believe that, for example, white heterosexual cis males are the only real or true power brokers in the world—or some close variation of that rote formula. This is pretty much just plain ole bullshit in today’s complex and often counterintuitive world and it will be even bullshittier in the rapidly approaching future world too. People are desperately holding onto too limited, too simplistic, and too outdated a model of power and power differentials. I believe this happens in large part because there are still too many people in progressive social justice activism who personally benefit too much from these outdated concepts or are too threatened by the current more complex understandings of power and counterintuitive expressions of it. Younger people are generally more thoughtful, more aware, and more spacious around such areas of thought. So I believe this problem will eventually simply die out.

(5)   Too many people who are too thin skinned and too intensely reactionary for their own good and for the good of everyone else as well as for the good of the entire progressive activist community.

Self-explanatory.

(6)   There are too many black folks and other folks of color who hold too strongly and too tightly onto very real, very understandable, historic, generational, as well as current yet nonetheless ultimately obstructionist, destructive, and counterproductive woundedness and similar energy that also impedes their and our ability to truly trust and work effectively with beneficial and valuable white allies among us. This is not a "you need to just get over it" assessment of these black and people of color folks on my part. No, I believe this is a valid criticism this of a large, visible, and very vocal segment of the black and other people of color population who are seriously involved in progressive social justice activism in America. And there are other allies (other than white folks) who are also negatively impacted by this too. I understand why this is. I get it. However, all my understanding and all my “getting it” doesn’t change the fact that this is still a real problem. 

Additionally, there are seemingly many self-absorbed, sycophant seeming type white allies who seem overly interested in being seen as being authentic and really, really good allies to blacks and other people of color and who themselves, in my opinion, are also ultimately fairly destructive and counterproductive to the common good of the community as a whole as well.  Such people also seem to routinely endorse whatever the most militant black and people of color community members endorse. This particular brand of overly zealous white allies seem to also lack originality in thought, action, and deed and to me they also seem to carry a lot of energy of defensive hostility that I also have experienced as being counterproductive and often quite scary as well. And I absolutely know that carrying a lot of defensive hostility, in movements, and in many other areas of life, is absolutely not automatically a problem nor a "problem" that needs to be fixed or solved. I however, have experienced it as a problem within the specific context I am reporting on here.

Finally, there are too many people, in general, in the community, who are, as a result of everything mentioned thus far, in this specific section, who are too complacent, or too afraid, and/or too intimidated by/terrified of these black folks and people of color folks (including other black folks and other people of color folks who are also afraid of, or intimidated by, or terrified of these same people) to admit this is a real thing, much less to call it out, admit it is a problem, and begin to address it and bring healing to it. This, I believe, is largely because of fear of being labeled a racist, which in this community, and many others, is the equivalent of a death sentence. Or if one is black—there is the fear of being accused of playing black respectability politics, or of being subjected to some other reactionary, defensive, and/or counterproductive pejorative name calling (Uncle Tom, Uncle Ruckus) that will likely be hurled at them. Additionally, there is the very useful (from the perspective of the divisive and self-centered ego mind of those who consciously use and manipulate) fear of being ostracized from the group and/or being publicly guilted and shamed.

Self-explanatory—plus too many bullying personalities, unnecessary aggressiveness, and unnecessary vitriol directed at too many people and too much consciously or unconsciously learned helplessness and/or conscious or unconscious playing the victim comes into this, to varying degrees as well.

(7)   Too much overwrought, over-the-top defensiveness among too many folks, especially among too many people who are strongly identified with various, innumerable, and collective identity groups, and again, also notable among black folks and other people of color folks specifically although certainly seen among many other identity groups as well.

Self-explanatory.

                                                                                                                                   

(8)   Too much identity politics, too much pandering to identity politics, and too many “pain wars” among the rank and file participants as well as among too many “leaders” as well.

Mostly self-explanatory, I believe. Most people, I believe, know what identity politics are. Pain wars are those conversations and interactions between traditionally oppressed, marginalized, and disenfranchised folks where the conversation essentially breaks down into a competition of “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most historically and/or currently oppressed, marginalized, and disenfranchised group or oppressed combination the world has ever known?” And if you manage to convince everyone or a good percentage of people that you hold the most high value oppression, marginalization, and disenfranchisement cards in the crowd (like in poker), you “win” (and concurrently, the struggle loses.

(9)   Conflict resolution processes that are often head centered instead of being heart centered, also often outdated, ineffectual, biased, prejudicial, rigged, run and executed (pun intended) by the power elite of the group, heavily reflective of internalized oppression-based values, and/or are sometimes a complete and total sham. 

Self-explanatory.

(10)   Too much cliquish bullshit specifically and too much bullshit in general and overall.

We Americans seem to be obsessed with cliques, cheaply earned (or completely unearned) popularity, and shallowness and the leftist/progressive social justice activist community is no exception. We Americans are also major competitive bull shitters on the world stage and once again, the American leftist/progressive social justice activist community is no exception. My best guess is that it will take some significant worldwide apocalyptic event to bring all of this to some sort of appreciable halt. If there are survivors of the apocalyptic event then there might be some post-apocalyptic stretch of time where we might be free from all this madness. Then my guess is, that after some amount of time, this cultural artifact will resurrect itself and will perhaps eventually move into full-fledged consciousness once again at some point. Ahhh, Saṃsāra, The Circle of Life.

Breathe in, Breathe out.

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Sage Mahosadha is a Christian contemplative prayer and Buddhist meditation instructor, a teacher of centering prayer, which is a contemporary Christian prayer technique deeply rooted in the first century devotional lives of the Desert Mothers and Fathers of Northern Africa, a Buddhist kindfulness (mindfulness + kindness) and secular mindfulness teacher, and the founder of The Loving Kindness Revolution. He lives in Northwestern Washington State in the US where his work is also based. The Loving Kindness Revolution is found on facebook here: THE LOVING KINDNESS REVOLUTION