Anyone who has interacted with radical leftists will notice certain consistent attributes among them.
They are highly emotional and irrational. Their conclusions are not based on logical assessments of a situation, but on their personal identification with one party and the projection of their own emotional damage into incommensurable issues.
One can easily observe this phenomenon repeated over and over. It is evident in the histrionic behavior of Code Pink activist
Sandra Ruch and the rest of her crew during their failed effort to sail
The Sea Hitler to Gaza to try to break an embargo against the terrorist group Hamas. It's evident in the
unbalanced behaviour of OCAP activists who disrupted a Toronto City Council meeting a few months ago. It's evident among radical university professors who are mired in marginal areas of study, such as "
Critical Race Theory" "Gender Studies" and others permeated with self-absorbed nonsense that bears little relevance to the rest of the world.
While people not directly involved with radical, anti-capitalist politics recognize the absurdities of that movement, it is interesting to note that some rare self-insight has been exhibited by the Godmother of Canadian radicalism, Judy Rebick.
In an
article at rabble.ca, the radical leftist website she founded, Rebick wrote:
In addition to the sadness about the state of society and of nature, almost all of us whatever oppression we might have experienced for social or economic reasons suffer from some kind of deep personal wounds. And if we don't face that sadness, that pain, we will inflict it on ourselves and others in a way that is hurtful. Much of the dysfunction on the Left comes not from political differences which can be creative and productive but from people acting out this pain. We become part of the problem instead of the part of the solution.
I was in therapy at the time when I was most busy and most recognized as an activist. I went through a lot of change both from the activism and from the therapy but I kept the therapy private. Only a few close friends knew what I was going through. We have privatized our emotional problems.
When psychiatrists assess people with mental illness, one of the considerations in the diagnosis that is a predictor of an individual's capability to respond to treatment is their insight into their condition. Rebick frequently makes statements that suggest that
she is detached from reality, but she is not unintelligent. Most of her cohorts in the radical left lack her intellect, such as it is, but have an even lesser degree of understanding of their own issues, to say nothing of the political postures they uncomprehendingly assume.
Whether or not the radical anti-capitalist movement can recognize that a great deal of what they do is an unfortunate outgrowth of their tainted psyches, Rebick's admission contributes the basis for understanding what really drives the Far Left.
