— fo } lo ] ——_ — —=_— ae [= = J.J. McCullough, OP Columnist The Depressing State of the Adbusters: lett here are lots of reasons why ’m not a left-winger. I believe in per- sonal freedom, and think that a strong sense of individualism is one of the greatest qualities a person can have. I believe that capitalism is an ingenious eco- nomic system in that it successfully recognizes innate human values of free- dom and choice, and promotes competition and individual creativity. I admire the successes of global capitalism, and while aware of its shortcomings, take pride in its universal appeal and promi- nent role in spreading democracy. I believe in the Judeo-Christian values of morality and community, and believe that when promoted with integrity, they serve as a positive guiding force within our soci- ety’s culture and personal relationships. In the end, however, one of the main rea- sons why I’m not a leftist is the simple fact that I have a great disdain and aver- sion towards what has now become the modern left-wing political culture. Today’s left is simply not a fun group to be around. They’re loud, patronizing, sanctimonious, and obnoxious. Members of the far-left are not only out of tune with the needs and wants of average peo- ple, they quite openly don’t care. They’re not interested in tailoring a message to suit the masses, but rather in crafting an agenda completely detached from the needs of a public they see as stupid and ignorant. Because of this, the leading institutions of leftist culture are becoming increasingly esoteric and isolated. They’re living in a bubble and the walls are getting stronger. Adbusters magazine—the publication that founded the “Buy Nothing Day” that this issue celebrates—is a good manifesta- tion of the current state of leftist culture (or, as they prefer to call it, “counter cul- ture”). Flip through the rag and you’ll see page after page of glossy photographs and collages created for the sole purpose november au/2oou of shocking, disgusting, and angering readers. You'll see photos of sweatshops, photos of blown-apart Iraqi babies, pho- tos of veal pens, photos of polluted skylines. What is the purpose? Are these photos supposed to promote ideas or solutions? Are they supposed to provoke discussion? Hardly. People who read Adbusters are over- whelmingly already members of the far-left who need little help coming up with reasons to hate capitalism, George W. Bush, corporations, meat-eaters, and the rest. Instead, the magazine and its provocative content serve one purpose and one purpose alone—to increase anger among the loyal. That’s the cycle. The left is obsessed with making itself angrier, louder, more violent, and more rage-filled with every passing day. The inevitable consequence of this culture of hate is an abandonment of reason, and in its place appears a sort of permanent nihilism. The mentality represented by the Adbusters set is defeatist, fatalistic, and profoundly depressed. The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and since nothing can be done to stop it, they smother themselves in images and articles that chronicle just how terrible the world is, and how badly their political movements are failing. It’s almost masochistic. The Audbusters-left clings to a sort of vaguely defined Marxist-socialist-Luddite-envi- ronmentalist utopia as their ideal alternative society (if they even bother thinking of alternatives to the status quo at all, that is). This hazy utopian ideal con- tinues to be held up as the on/y acceptable solution, and because of its impossibility, the far-left constantly resorts to political cannibalism towards its less-than-perfect allies. Any “mainstream” or “establish- ment” venues for change are immediately dismissed as irrelevant. For example, hop- ing for a Kerry win in the last election was deemed pointless, because “both candi- dates are the same.” Left-wing politicians are never left-wing enough, and as a result such “sellouts” can actually become the target of as much rage as any of their conservative counterparts. When a polliti- cal culture is based purely on hate and anger instead of optimism and hope, it becomes stagnate. It becomes impossible for it to achieve any victories. Today’s political protests are a quintes- sential example of this kind of spirit in action. While there was a time when impromptu street protests were regarded as a meaningful and respectable outlet of public expression, today they are over- whelmingly regarded as a joke. The reason? Today’s protests are motivated by nothing other than vitriolic leftist anger. They no longer express a coherent mes- sage, or even attempt to. It’s just about showing rage at a society that the fringe left—due to its own culture of nihilism and helplessness—feels increasingly detached from. At the WTO protests in Seattle and Italy for example, the congre- gation of so much anger in one place predictably made the events turn violent, as windows were smashed and police offi- cers were provoked. Yet leftists still slap each other’s backs and talk about what a grand outing those episodes were. Who cares if they didn’t accomplish anything? That wasn’t the point. The point, instead, was an outlet of expression for the mem- bers of the rage cult. Not all left-wingers are part of this culture, I realize. There are plenty of per- fectly sane liberals and moderates who are just as distrusting of this bizarre counter- culture as I am. There are also many disgusting figures on the political right who embody many similarly unpleasant tactics. Overall though, I think the sort of nihilistic, failure-loving attitude personi- fied by Adbusters and its anti-globalization brethren remains very much the exclusive domain of those on the far-end of the political left. Golda Meir once said that peace would only come to the Middle East once the Palestinians learned to love their children more than they hate the Jews. The far-left will similarly remain in the political wilder- ness forever, unless they are able to create a culture that learns to pride its own val- ues more than it hates its opponents.’