maxflinn
pfm Member
Gassor, I don't think that's a correct summation of it. See the quoted part below:Of course, you wouldn't expect me to not know what I was talking about . I thought it lacked coherence. It argued that Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron and Tony Blair were divisive and harmful to the country, yet somehow we need Corbyn's divisiveness. "But division is just what our broken politics needs".
Corbyn is a divisive figure, but so is Boris Johnson, so were Theresa May and David Cameron, so was Blair. It’s just that the people who were divided away by them weren’t considered important. The poor, the “loony left”, the disabled, the foreign – none of them mattered and so the solid core of people who remained could say: “Look how unified we are, look how we compromise like adults.” But it’s a shallow kind of compromise, where you only ask the people who already broadly agree with you.
Corbyn’s divisiveness in this context is what underlies his appeal, and that’s why the calls for him to step aside for a more unifying figure are so tone-deaf. If he were acceptable to the current holders of power in this country, then he wouldn’t be any use to us.
Exposing division is not the same as causing it. Eventually we are going to have to stop saying “you’re dividing us” and start asking: “Which side do I need to be on?”
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...corbyn-divisive-broken-politics-labour-leader
I think the author's point is that Corbyn divides because he doesn't subscribe to the same neoliberal orthodoxy that all the rest named do, or did.
As he said; if he did, and 'were acceptable to the current holders of power in this country, then he wouldn't be of any use to us'.
He sees many issues with the status quo, and wants big changes which aim to deal with the growing inequality, housing issues, poverty etc. The rest just want more of the same kind of policies that have created many of these problems in the first place. So while they're divisive in different ways, they're all on the same page in general.
We need people like Corbyn with fresh ideas, willing to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy, or nothing will change, and the trajectory we're on will continue, just with different faces at the helm.
This is why I see centrism as so pointless. It basically represents the neoliberal status quo, sometimes with mild tweaks. I guess that's fine if you're financially snug. Not so much if you're not.