On Being Labeled a Radical

Op-Ed Columnist – A Radical Treasure – NYTimes.com

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I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?

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That he was considered radical says way more about this society than it does about him.

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Yes, it does not take much to be labeled “radical” today. You only need to stand up for the little guys against the power of governments and corporations. Policies being framed today are increasingly for the benefit of the rich and the powerful. Even the pretense of egalitarianism is being dropped. The fig leaf is no longer needed, it seems.

And it’s only going to get worse, as competition for possession and control of the limited resources of planet Earth hots up. Those at the bottom of the heap are slowly but surely getting squeezed to the point of strangulation.

All this, of course, is as it should be. The natural order of things, you see.

After all, who is stopping you from becoming rich and powerful yourself?

Posted from Diigo.

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