In this Occasional Paper translated by Wolfgang Kasper, two German analysts, Dirk Maxeiner and Michael Miersch argue that the Left’s classical aspirations have long been realised in all mature welfare states. Yet, by now, the grandchildren of the old revolutionaries have become reactionary. They cling to increasingly discredited methods of statist interventionism, rather than setting goals – always a tell-tale symptom of intellectual sclerosis.
The new Left is now increasingly siding with dictators, as long as these are anti-American. It connives to secure the privileges of the better-off on government payrolls and has little time for the aspiring battlers among the working class. Nor do the Red-Green elites of the present-day Left show much solidarity with the Third-World poor. Indeed, they try to deny them the benefits of globalisation and open trade. Not only with regard to protectionism do the new Left’s slogans increasingly resemble those of the extreme Right, as both collectivist schools hark back to the promise of the state as the all-knowing, benevolent benefactor of last resort.
The new Left opposes technical progress and social adaptation; instead, it paints worst-case scenarios that feed the fear industry. The Left has said farewell to the Enlightenment, and in its wake obscurantist and esoteric world views are flourishing.
