The Revolution Must Be Felt

Author’s Note —
This is an essay that has been brewing in my mind for some time. It’s about the uncomfortable truths of revolution, social movements, and the strength we must summon to move forward. I don’t expect it to be without controversy but I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t express the oscillation I feel within.

By writing this essay I am going to commit a taboo in most contemporary leftist communities, I am going to do something that my leftist friends are going to dislike and I am going to put myself in a vulnerable position but if Afraid0fAsteroids stands for something it is expressing your true opinion even if it is “wrong”. So I am going to admit that Mamandi did the right thing by honouring a killed police officer yesterday. This is the fundamental statement for We Must Feel The Revolution. We must continue Merleau-Ponty's intellectual gift where In his incredible essay (which has impacted me deepy) The War Has Taken Place he asks how both sides of the Second World War lost their humanity, a question we must seek to answer. In this essay we will explore how the left wing often responds to both changes and events in society and why we must be able to criticise ourselves for it. In the most simple terms we must be able to live through Aristotle's genius phrase Human Qua Human, even when it does not fit our agenda. If we don’t the revolution will never exist, unless we want to repeat the French Revolution's mistake when the humanity of a revolution the reign of terror begins.

Human Qua Human (Even When It Isn’t Natural)

Yesterday Zohran Mamandi made his first blunder with leftist during his New York City mayoral campaign. The star boy of the progressive wing of the democratic party whose stance on Palestine, wealth distribution and fight for the common man is nothing short of refreshing did something that no true leftist would do, he released a statement “Officer Didarul Islam was one of four people killed in yesterday’s horrific shooting. A Bangladeshi immigrant who joined the NYPD four years ago, he lived in Parkchester with his pregnant wife, their two young children, and his elderly parents. When he joined the police department, his mother asked him why he would pursue such a dangerous job. He told her it was to leave behind a legacy that his family could be proud of. He has done that, and more. I pray for him, his family, and honor the legacy of service and sacrifice he leaves behind.” Now this statement has proven controversial in two different yet alike and interesting ways. Two sides have responded to this statement, the right wing by resurfacing one of Mamandi's old tweets where he answered “nature is healing” to a tweet that said “I just saw a NYPD officer crying in his car.” Then on the left wing the problem with this statement is the fact that Mamandi is speaking well and honouring a police officer who upholds the systemic racism, brutality and corruption of our milieu. These statements are both worth unpacking and they will be, after I first dismiss them by saying “Both these statements are inherently flawed because they fail to see the officer as human.” Or as the great Aristotle said they fail to see the Human qua Human. The right wing fails to see the humanity in Mamandi's tweets and actions. Yes Mamandi has proposed defunding the NYPD, yes he did make a joke saying that he was happy that a police officer was crying but (and this is where the left wing fails) he is able to distinguish a situation. The police officer who was killed died in a mass shooting not oppressing the poor, not attacking homeless people he died at best a hero who tried to attack the attacker and defend his fellow humans and at “worst” he died as a human probably afraid, wishing he could be home with his family, not aware of what was happening. The left must be able to see the Human qua Human in situations.

Why We Must See The Bigger Picture

This point relates to Sartre's point in his book Search for a Method where he comes to the conclusion that Marxism/ Existentialism is how we must study history as Marxism is great at studying social, economic and political factors and existentialism is great with studying an individual's life, When Mamandi points out that the police officer had two young children, a mother, a wife and did the job because he believed he was helping others this is through the existentialism lens. Looking through this viewpoint is it not shameful that we are not able to wish him and his family peace and strength throughout this horrible ideal? The Marxist would answer that his labour as an agent of the state takes away this point, which I would agree with if he was an ICE agent. If he was an ICE agent who was not in uniform, undercover separating families from their loved ones, taking hard working fathers away etc. Then I believe that he deserves what he had coming, but a human who lived one of the most frightening experiences possible, who died alone and scared whose position of power made no difference in the end we must be able to be aware of the difference in situations. This is where we must feel the revolution. We must be able to acknowledge the horrors that happen. Albert Camus was criticised and tarnished his legacy with many leftist when he said “I have always condemned terrorism. I must also condemn a terrorism which works blind, in which women and children become victims; and I must condemn it with the same energy as I condemn a terrorism of police and racketeers. I believe in justice, but I will defend my mother before justice.” This quote was seen as Camus taking a cowardly stance against French colonialism in Algeria, but I see it as Camus being uniquely human. Of course we must seek justice and fight for a better society for all, but it has always been easy to do from the sidelines, from a safe distance. When the pure French Sartre was able to cry for a free Algeria and criticise Camus using a pure Marxist lenses of the situation from the comfort of France we must acknowledge the existentialist lens as well with Camus saying “A bomb does not know if it is killing my mother or my enemy.” The left must learn to distinguish the revolution and allow humans to keep their humanity unless we want to end up like the French Revolution, a pure beautiful revolution fighting for workers right, liberty, love and justice until it did not and all it was, was a reign of terror led by one man who killed thousands of innocent people.

Merleau Ponty as Our Patron Saint

Merleau Ponty is a philosopher who I love. I love his work on phenomenology, political philosophy and with Les Temps Moderns but the reason I love him the most is because I see myself in him. In the book that introduced me to existentialism The Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Blackwell many personal stories are told about him how he had a happy childhood, how he was a laid back person who did not take himself seriously outside of his work and would go out dancing how unlike other philosophers he was a family man but most importantly to our cause is his reaction to the Nazi occupation of Paris . Merleau-Ponty was as Anti-Nazi as anyone taking part of the French Resistance and yet during the occupation he struggled to do simple acts of sabotage against the Nazis. The great thinker would hesitate to give them wrong directions, or to not respond to their friendly greeting (even sometimes to his anger  responding to them) yet he did what most leftist fail to do. He saw the Human qua Human. When it came to it he was able to defeat, argue and fight the Nazis but he could still see the humanity in people, I know this is a controversial example and I am making it for a reason.  If Merleau Ponty could still (much to his frustration) still see humanity in the most disgusting political movement of history, can we not do the same today? The Nazis were destroyed for many reasons but to zone into the French intellectual sphere with Camus Letters to a German Friend or Ponty's actions they were destroyed because of the humanity that the french resistance believe in and were willing to die for, meanwhile the inhumanity of the Nazis is what led to their eventual downfall. 

The Revolution Must Be Felt

I must admit Human Qua Human is a quote taken out of context Aristotle uses it to propose that humans are rational animals he says to think as a human, yet this is the quote that rightfully directed this essay. If humans are rational beings we must be able to see humans as humans, to access situations and to not be blindly led by ideology or by party slogans. The time for a leftist revolution is now, there are many reasons for this which I have already covered in other essays but all great revolutions fail when they lose their humanity because of this we must feel the revolution, slow down, be aware of what we are doing or else we just want to bring another failed project with countless innocents dead.