Leftism Leftism A Concise Defense J. Mikael Olsson Leftism. A Concise Defense © J. Mikael Olsson 2017 ISBN: 978-91-984370-0-3 Café 60 Media Box 12050 102 22 Stockholm SWEDEN [email protected] www.cafe60media.se Contents Introduction 7 Economic Redistribution 11 Feminism 28 Anti-Discrimination and Affirmative Action 40 Multiculturalism and Immigration 54 Globalization and Workers’ Rights 66 Democracy and Political Rights 78 Summary and Conclusion 90 Appendix A: ‘Marxism,’ ‘Socialism,’ and ‘Capitalism’ 96 Appendix B: Leftism and Religion 102 Introduction This book (or pamphlet, I should say) does not attempt to defend any particular party or movement of the left. It does not attempt to defend the specific policies of any existing government. This means that the principles put forward here must be combined with detailed knowledge about one’s own society and political circumstances in order to pro- duce specific policy suggestions. The aim of this work is, rather, to defend some general principles and ideas that have traditionally been associated with what is usually called left wing politics. It is my impression that whereas some groups on ‘the right’ have intensified their studies of their own ideological foundations and sharpened their arguments, the left has lagged behind when it comes to reasoned 7 argument. A mundane example of this trend can be seen on YouTube, where there are numerous videos of people dissecting left wing ideas (mostly ‘socialism’ or ‘feminism’) while the left seems reluctant to learn about or discuss anything about the philosophical bases of their right wing opponents or to defend sound philosophical principles them- selves in open debate. The left seems to rely on a general feeling that something is wrong or unjust in this world. They seem to think that it is enough just to point to a problem – or to the fact that someone is feeling of- fended or disrespected – to make the solu- tion of it obvious to everyone. At the same time, academics of the left have to a large degree shut themselves up in their ivory towers, discussing and developing theories that are incomprehensible to ordinary peo- ple (and oftentimes untenable upon closer scrutiny), while many academics of the right speak in more plain and simple terms, which appeals to a lay audience. Anyway, this pamphlet shows how I would personally defend ‘leftist’ politics if I were 8 cornered by a bunch of right-wingers and forced to explain myself. Hopefully it can be of use to other people as well. I have to a large extent avoided technical (philosophi- cal) jargon and have eschewed the use of footnotes. The technical terms that do ap- pear can probably be looked up elsewhere with ease. Deeper discussion (as well as ref- erences) on some topics covered in the pre- sent work can be found in other works of mine. As will become evident, I have not at- tempted to define ‘leftism’ in any precise way. Instead, I rely on what social scientists call an ideal type, i.e., a sort of approximate definition that consists of the enumeration of certain characteristics that are usually con- nected to the phenomenon we want to de- fine. It is not necessary, however, that indi- vidual cases of the phenomenon itself con- tain all the characteristics. Moreover, we cannot ‘objectively’ establish how many of the characteristics that must be observed in the individual case, or how strongly they must be manifested. In the case of ‘leftism,’ 9 we are talking about a word about which most people have a rough idea. People can, in other words, probably agree about its ideal type. But if we were to attempt to agree upon a more precise definition, we would probably fail. When it comes to my own construction of an ideal type for leftism I have assumed that one characteristic is especially important, namely (1) that relatively high levels of eco- nomic redistribution are recommendable. I then identify five more characteristics that are more of the ‘optional’ kind; but it would perhaps be hard to call someone a ‘pure’ leftist if he does not subscribe to any of the views besides the first one. Anyway, the other characteristics I identify are adherence to (2) radical feminism, (3) anti-discrimination measures, (4) (weak) multiculturalism and rights of immigration, (5) bottom-up globali- zation and special rights for workers, and (6) participatory and majoritarian democracy. The chapters that follow discuss how I be- lieve these principles should be defended. 10