Ascribing this very real problem to “the left” is incorrect. Historical amnesia, the ascendancy of the culture of narcissism (MYspace, YOUtube, FACEbook), AND the triumph of the market over the truth go much further toward explaining this phenomenon.
There is a left in the world that believes that al-Qaeda is a theocratic fascist organization who should be defeated with all the force of our military; that finds more kinship with anti-Stalinist liberals like Lionel Trilling than with Noam Chomsky; and who thinks of the American Revolution as preferable to the Marxist one.
One can easily argue that the sanctimonious masochism the author discusses is an adaptive mechanism of capitalism. Capitalism is ingenious in this way, and it quite often makes liberals sound like morons. This “lefty” anti-Americanism a conscience cleaner and an identity accessory that makes the children of privilege–as well as rich Hollywood actors and rock stars–feel better about their affluence. It also adds an element of martyrdom to the culture of narcissism. This is nothing new (think of Jim Morrisson in his Jesus Christ pose howling his “poetry” about the wicked America). But now it’s institutionalized and has more market value. Matt Damon’s Will Hunting drops Howard Zinn’s name in a major movie, George Clooney makes blowback into blockbusters and can claim his Oscar–and more importantly his fortune–as a triumph for progressive social activism.
To say this is the “left” is to dishonor people like Rosa Luxembourg, George Orwell, and Victor Serge, and even MLK. It’s no left at all, it’s just populism: bobble heads for primetime. It makes people feel less bad about knowing that their comforts probably come at the expense of the comfort of others. This is in theory a good tendency because it entails an effort to expand the moral imagination beyond one’s own tribe and to turn criticism inward. Self criticism is a pillar of American values. I agree with the author that it’s unfortunate that these potentially good traits now exist mainly as absurd, harmful caricature, but a brief consultation of history would show the anti-American flock AND the pro-American one that memory, and humility in the presence of truth go much further than convenient forgetting, sanctimony and the squelching of truth underneath whatever new scheme of self-importance the market serves up.
