The modern American left is a cultural and political group that consists of individuals with broad spectrum of views and ideas and varied ideas about how to apply these ideas. As a political group, the American left is generally only united in a general opposition to the American shift towards neoliberalism and fight the paradigm of unfettered free market capitalism. This paper will largely stay focused on the American left because that is what I am generally familiar with, and the analysis applied in this paper may or may not apply to the various forms of global leftism that exist. One of the foundational artifacts that exist for the left is Marx’s analysis of capitalism in Das Kapital. The criticisms and analysis of capitalism that Marx created is one that seeps throughout the foundational ideology of the left and this can easily be analyzed through the framework of religious studies.
One of the few uniting identities of the left is their criticisms and political action against modern neoliberal capitalism and Marx’s Capital is often cited as being a key authoritative text that serves to legitimize that claim. The framework by which to view capitalism that Marx lays out is used to legitimize the political action of the left and the work does this by creating a way to view capitalism that can only be solved by that political action. The fundamental goal of leftism itself is thus justified by the fact that Marx says that capitalism has fundamental problems and is an unreformable system. The very fact that Marx has laid his analysis out in this way creates a justification for itself and the political action that stems from it. Thus, the fight against capitalism is legitimized because of a text that is also in itself a fight against capitalism that justifies itself because in the text it says that capitalism is an unreformable system. The fight against capitalism has also been used to justify various anti-humanist acts, but once again these actions are often legitimized by the fact that the bringing down of the capitalism paradigm is constructed as something that will inherently help people and thus any temporary pain that is caused in the pursuit of that is merely pain that must be suffered through in order to get to Marx’s promised land.
Marx’s theory can only legitimize the status quo of leftism because it is held as an authoritative text by its proponents. The way in which this text is authorized happens in various ways but the fact that it is an authoritative text is one that is generally not questioned in the general debate that occurs inside leftist spaces because it legitimizes itself. Marx himself is often held as an authoritative figure in his own right because of his place in the historical doctrine as the “Father of Scientific Socialism”. His body of work lends credence to itself and the historical influence that he holds serves to create him as a larger-than-life authoritative figure. The historical legend of Marx and Capital is not the only way that they are constructed as authoritative; the enlightenment ideals of rationality and scientific rigor also are used to authorize the text. Capital is perceived as a pretty scientific work, with various facts, figures, mathematics, and sociology serving to cement it as a “rational” work. The denseness and the inaccessibility of the text itself creates a situation in which not only is this often used to justify its authority, but also means that it can often be stretched to fit assumptions and ideas that don’t necessarily have any actual basis in the text. Marx himself is a figure of absent authority, he can’t be asked to confirm whether the left is doing leftism correctly, and the same can also almost be said about Capital itself because of its inaccessibility to the average working class person, it’s supposed audience.
The absent authority of Marx and Marx’s work creates a situation of broad interpretation and application of those ideas that are the foundational beliefs of modern leftism. Internal unity and internal conformity are things that are often perceived as being absent from the left, yet the internal identification and stratification of who is a “real leftist” or not is a debate that rages as people consider their own interpretation of Marx to be legitimate and authoritative and anyone who dares stray from the anyone’s own personal interpretation is up for ridicule and ostracization. However, this is slightly different from groups that hold political power because there is generally one interpretation of a text that is broadly accepted by the majority and used to ostracize the minority. Yet, the left is not like this because of the individual nature of interpretation of leftist ideas so most everyone comes away with different applications and values. Thus, leftists have trouble unifying themselves because of the differences in interpretations of foundational texts and turn on one another because most people consider their individual interpretation the “correct” one. This creates an atmosphere where everyone is on the hunt for “fake leftists” that stray from their own personal values.
The analysis of the left and their relationship with Marx’s Capital through the eyes of religious studies provides insight into the inner workings of the cultural group. The left uses the absent authority of Marx and Capital to legitimize their ideas and political action and it is often used to manufacture consent for these political actions among the broader group of progressives themselves. However, the relativism that exists in the interpreting of this authoritative text creates an atmosphere of infighting as people police their own inner leftist social groups.
i am leftist btw
Jacob's Religious Studies Blog 