Three Cheers For Joy
What a revolutionary can learn from Zohran
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Joy has become almost a dirty word on the left lately. Sullied by people like Kamala Harris and her centrist counterparts talking about embracing joy while fervently supporting a genocide and promising the working class absolutely no relief from the crushing status quo, the concept of being joyous has started to become associated with being totally disconnected with the suffering all around us. The Zohran campaign and subsequent victory has something to say about that. The campaign’s embrace of boundless optimism has been critical to its success. The difference between this type of joy and the the kind embraced by Harris et al is in its authenticity. It isn’t a positivity that is predicated on intentional ignorance of our material conditions, but one that sees those conditions and feels relentlessly optimistic about a vision to resolve them. It is a joy that is fueled by a vision for the future that is so much better than our current reality. It is a joy that is grounded in a recognition that we can be more and in a faith in the average person to break their own chains. I think the left can learn a lot from this.
For too long the revolutionary left, (especially in online spaces, but also in real life) has adopted a posture of dour realism that seems to embrace the idea that authenticity is found in being the sober truth teller that can’t possibly express happiness or hope when things are so bad and suffering is so total. While it’s legitimate to reject the superficiality of a joy rooted in just “hoping for the best and ignoring the worst”, too many seem to believe that this also means rejecting optimism or joy of any kind. While anger can be a powerful motivator to spur one into action, it can also be paralyzing without its dialectical counterpart. With no joy, no hope, no optimism, there can be no future. With no feelings of great love centering your movement, there can be no victory. If we want to grow a movement that can truly break our chains we must become the type of movement that others want to join. If we instead revel in raining on every parade, on scolding people who feel hope or excitement (even if misguided), we become repellent to normal people who are desperate to find something to cling to as it all falls apart. While social democrats are partying we stand in the corner with a surly expression on our faces, arms crossed, chastising people for daring to smile, and then turn around and wonder why no one is asking us to dance.
“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.” ― Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Yes, And.
There is a way to thread this needle that doesn’t require you to be a pollyanna who cannot speak to the truth of our material realities and still to be a welcoming force that is infectious in its ability to move and inspire. Abandon the binary that says you must either be blissfully ignorant or aware but miserable. The key is to focus not just on what is wrong, but also on how wonderful it will be to live in a society that fixes it. Learning to not say “no” to misguided workers, but to say “yes, and”. Successful movements do not scold people into thinking their way, they speak to the pain of the working class but also to their sense of optimism. They say “yes, the election of Mamdani is a victory for working people because it shows we can take on capital and win, and there is still more work to do, here’s how to start”. No one has ever been won over by smug condescension and superiority complexes.
What was so extraordinary about Mamdani’s campaign was his ability to talk to anyone and acknowledge their point of view, and tell them what he could do for them without judgement. Even to non voters, to triple Trump voters, to Cuomo voters, to anyone at all. If the revolutionary left wants to even be on the same playing field, it cannot adopt a posture of being too good for the the rubes. There is value in critique and criticism of course, yet it holds an almost mythic quality among the left. It has in itself taken the place of actual praxis in the minds of so many. Being a critic who stands on the sidelines and spends more time throwing tomatoes than it does changing minds is not the work. Extreme hypervigilance has replaced action in near totality. Scanning every word spoken by social democrats for the faintest trace of betrayal cannot replace the duty of going into communities where people still like Bernie Sanders and AOC and their counterparts and talking to them - not to tell them that they’re wrongheaded, but to show them an even broader vision of the possible. It would be nearly impossible to build the numbers we need to truly change the structure of society by acting like a bunch of miserable assholes all the time.
While we know the shortcomings of reforms and social democracy, our knowledge isn’t the same as power. Power comes from having the people on our side. Getting the people on our side requires us to create the type of movement that is so infectious, so exciting, that people can’t help but be drawn in. Centering our movements in optimism and love isn’t just some feel-good pablum, it gets to the heart of the matter: if we do not believe in our class, if we do not believe that workers can rise above their oppression, then why do we even call ourselves communists in the first place? If - on the other hand - we believe in the working class, we will approach them with a sense of revolutionary patience, knowing that consciousness is a continuum, and that they have the capacity to evolve as we ourselves have. Having a head full of theory but a heart that has hardened itself totally to the possibility that others can be changed is worse than useless, it’s a betrayal of the people who inspired you and who actually believed that they could act on their conditions and inspire and move their class to victory.
If there’s anything worth taking away from the campaign that went from 1% to triumph in the heart of global capital it is this: stop underestimating people’s capacity to move towards a future that is worth fighting for. Stop thinking each individual you meet is frozen in amber and cannot expand. Look for the future revolutionaries in the taxi driver, the cashier, the dock worker, the everyday people all around you. You were once a liberal and you are not that special and that is wonderful news! That means millions more can see the world as you do one day. Instead of an emphasis on “I told you so’s” and “this will never work” focus on the infinite potential contained in the working class just waiting to be unleashed. Believe in them and they’ll believe in you back. Set aside your egos and your pessimism and start looking to what the future could be if there were millions more of us. Show people what's worth fighting for by struggling alongside them with an open heart and mind and build the future together. That is how we win.
Beautifully written, and perfectly stated as always Scarlet. I love your invocation of the "yes, and" approach, which can serve as a vehicle for helping us build solidarity while meeting the people where they are. There's no delusions about reformism or electoralism here, but rather the recognition of a momentous opportunity to really connect with a working class increasingly more desperate for not only a better path forward, but a material future they both see themselves in and truly become invested in. The energy and excitement people are feeling now is an invitation for us to engage with people on really meaningful levels that allows us to find more common ground and move further in the direction of revolutionary politics. Instead of raining on their parade and compelling them to accept the world as it appears to be, we must, instead, help them dare to see the world for what it can be, and Zohran's victory (more notably the organizing infrastructure that workers built around him) can be a big step towards moving more folks in that direction. Thank you, as always, for having the right words to address these moments Scarlet. The joy and hope are exciting. Now the work begins to ensure those feelings don't become fleeting in the blink of an eye.
Hard not to think about Spanberger dourly pooh-poohing Mamdani's 'big dreams' while reading this. Like, ma'am, notice that your colleague Jay Jones won his election as well. It's not just leftists who are looking for any scrap of emotional release! People are sad, scared, and angry and you have to offer them SOMETHING.