When a man or a political movement declares itself “neither right nor left”, we know from the outset that it is on the right of the political spectrum (even if it is unaware of it itself) for the simple reason that being on the left means not judging it indifferent that racism persists or that the right to abortion is acquired, for example: it means feeling the need for certain victories and the two battles that I have just named have always been historically carried by the left, like almost all necessary battles. To consider that left and right are the same thing, you must therefore be stupid or indifferent to essential things – to sufferings which, because they are not ours, are at least relatively indifferent to us.
Of course we can and we must also not simplify reality to the point of caricature: there are bastards on the left and people more desirable than these bastards on the right. The choice of the ballot put in the box and the personal behavior can differ and often do differ (the gap between what we claim to be and the way in which we behave is quite simply very shared from one end to the other of the political spectrum).
We can even go further and deplore the fetishistic attachment to the notions of right and left, which can prevent us from thinking.
We can also consider that said representative democracy has limits and, more than that, shortcomings and that those who say “idiot trap elections” are not entirely wrong. We can remember that for the dictionary “Republic” and “democracy” are not synonyms etc.
More.
But there is the short term, the medium term and the long term and then there is simply the fact that I have come across more than one, over the years, of these non-voters who consider themselves to be on the left and do not participate in any reflection, even slightly serious, if not outright, on the need for a refoundation – or better foundation – of our democratic life.
For them, being left-wing is something like a feeling, preferences, a sensitivity but it is in no way a commitment.
So, far from articulating the short, medium and long term by using this tool that is voting while questioning it, they act as if the arrival in power of a left-wing force or that of the extreme right did not entail any alteration of reality, did not open or close any field of possibilities.
If the worst sick people of the extreme right, more uninhibited than ever by a possible victory, attack people who, more often than not, will not have their skin color or will be of a faith that is foreign to them, they will find it regrettable but will judge that they have nothing to do with it since deep down they will not have wanted it.
Yet they will have allowed it, which shows that they are not left-wing: they are just individuals like those produced in spades by capitalism and liberalism, perhaps less angry than others but barely less indifferent and in no way responsible. They are of these individuals produced in spades the most liberal version (in the best sense of the term) but this is in truth still very little.
To be on the left is to believe that certain things are intolerable and should not happen and that this is everyone’s business. The rest is gesticulations in front of the mirror, by which we attribute values to ourselves that we do not embody, not even by a movement of the pelvis which consists of moving to the nearest polling station. It’s a joke and it’s sinister.
Frédéric Debomy
PS Regarding climate change, I will not cry either the possible day when those of these people who have children will find themselves face to face with the latter who, having grown up, will call them idiots and bastards upon discovering that their parents had not been able to put even one ballot in the ballot box when there was still time to act. I could multiply the examples of tears that I will not shed (intermittent workers who did not mobilize to prevent the possibility of beatings or even guarantee the survival of their status and suddenly find themselves naked etc.)
