Petty “left” nationalism
If There’s Hope demolishes the petty complaceny and reflexive anti-Americanism of Canadian left nationalists:
American lefties who hold Canada up as a utopia are complimented on the other side of the border by Canadian lefties who think America is a bastion of reaction. Is it possible that Chuckman has occupied both these states of mind? The Chuckman Syndrome consists of a broad, filthy, mono-colour brush swept across each nation. There is never anything remotely rooted in class analysis, the analysis required to distinguish ruler from ruled, criminal from criminalized. Chuckman, as we see, places responsibility on the shoulders of Americans for America’s crimes, and continues to do so some eleven days after hundreds of thousands marched in the biggest anti- war demos since February 2003 (a simple nod to this fact might have helped me perceive Chuckman as at least living outside a bubble). At best, Chuckman insinuates that all Americans are silent, complicit criminals. I don’t see it this way – the American working class are victims too.