Maximilian Forte: [...]one might note the tendency among some defenders of the Venezuelan revolution to engage in very well-intentioned rebuttals of mainstream media falsehoods about the alleged shortcomings or outright lack of democracy in Venezuela, especially in terms of press freedom, elections, etc., without questioning the terms of the debate. Without rejecting these efforts in the least, it is also important to recognize that what we risk reinforcing and entrenching liberal democracy as the ultimate standard by which to measure “freedom” in any given society, regardless of the inappropriateness of this model. Then, in order to seem fair, reasonable, and balanced, we sometimes concede, “yes, the Venezuelan authorities could do better”–as if the prime allegiance ought to be in maintaining liberal forms that we ourselves fail to uphold in our own societies. Given that we in the west live in increasingly authoritarian, post-liberal systems, it’s also ironic that we should expect others to uphold our model for us. The larger discussion that is pushed into the margins as a result of this constant cycle of liberal rebuttal and defense is that of envisioning different forms of democracy and political expression that do not privilege political parties and media owned by wealthy elites. Another of the larger discussions that is thereby avoided as well is whether Bolivarian socialism can really achieve its ultimate aims while continuing to concede, compromise and develop new contradictions by this increasingly difficult attempt to maintain a mixed economy and liberal democratic institutions that were never devised for the oppressed to challenge and take back power from oligarchies. Clearly, neither the upper classes, nor their US backers, have any interest in maintaining a liberal democracy either, not when they cannot have total sway over the society. At this point, we have to discuss questions such as: Whose purposes are served by the maintenance of western-derived, elitist ideas of liberal democracy? What are we defending, and against whom/what are we defending it?
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 04:27:37 +0000
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