Karl Marx wanted workers to
identify as workers. He believed than
only when they began looking after their own interests would they be able to
throw off the yoke of capitalist oppression.
Today, liberals purvey a
similar attitude with respect to women and minorities. Women are thus told they must identify
themselves, first and foremost, as women, while African-Americans are asked to
consider themselves primarily as African-American. Being American—or human—come in a distant
second.
Marx advocated this tactic
because he didn’t want workers to side with their bosses. Liberals likewise do not want women or blacks
to support their reputed oppressors. In
the case of women, these are men; whereas for blacks, it is whites in general.
In both instances, the goal
is to prepare the way for a rebellion.
For Marxists, this was intended to destroy capitalism; for liberals, it
is to totally remake America along neo-socialist lines.
And so women and
African-Americans are encouraged to think of themselves as oppressed
workers. If they do, they will surely
align with the proletarian cause and help defeat their common tormentors.
This makes false
consciousness, that is, identifying with men or whites, a serious transgression. Men, particularly Republican men, they are
repeatedly told, are waging a war on women, while whites, particularly
conservative whites, are obviously trying to reinstate slavery.
These arguments would be risible—except that
many young women and most blacks seem to buy them. They do not appear to understand that
identifying with liberal causes today constitutes the true false consciousness.
Consider the situation of
women. If men are the enemy, does
marriage make sense? And if marriage
does not make sense, does having children make sense? “Sleeping with the Enemy” made a wonderful
movie title, but it is a terrible way to create a family.
Married women know
this. They are therefore more likely to
vote conservative. A majority of single
women do not. They fail to realize that they
are being encouraged to become old maids and/or unwed mothers. As a result, they are prepared to sell out
their own interests for the sake of free birth control.
No! Women and men are not enemies! To the contrary, they ought to be allies. Yes, some men are abusive, but this is not
the norm. If it were, we would all be
doomed.
Consequently, young women
must learn that this business of men earning more for the same work is a
liberal canard. They instead need to discover
that success and intimacy are not necessarily inconsistent. They must likewise realize that when men win,
they also win. This is not false
consciousness, but reality.
With respect to
African-Americans, don’t they remember that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves,
that Republican votes helped pass the civil rights laws, and that Richard Nixon
started affirmative action? Since when
have conservatives been pro-slavery—except in liberal propaganda?
Conservatives insist that
blacks learn to help themselves, but how is this anti-black? Has helpless dependency somehow morphed into
the contemporary version of freedom?
Successful parents demand that their children perform so that they too
can be successful. Shouldn’t we, as a
society, make similar demands of blacks so that they can be successful?
So what has the liberal parody
of false consciousness delivered in the way of benefits? Not much!
The sad fact is that women are discovering a bad economy is bad for
everyone—not just men. After all, women
too are losing jobs, and women too are suffering under ObamaCare.
As for African-Americans,
they may cheer at rhetoric that castigates conservatives as their nemesis, but
they are doing even less well on the job market. A black president is a wonderful symbol, yet
symbolism alone does not put food on the table.
No, women and blacks are
Americans and should be proud of it.
They must also realize that because we are all in the same boat, hurting
the whole hurts them too.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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