Forfatter: Marielle Leraand

Reality check: Is it a good sign that Rødt and SV’s parliamentary representatives have become so popular in the mainstream media? What about standing for positions that are banned by the war profiteers? asks the chairman of FOR, Marielle Leraand. 

This comment on the school election result was first published on her Facebook page.

Cut the crap! 

Klassekampen seems to have concluded: FpU leader Simen Velle is the «King of the schoolyard» (according to the newspaper’s front page). He’s popular on TikTok, and yes, I absolutely believe that TikTok is important for the younger generation. 

But could it be that the explanation goes deeper than that? There are many young men (and women) who fall for people like Andrew Tate; they look up to those who dare to challenge all the politically correct things they are so sick of.

And instead of hanging out these young men (and women) who will one day become adults, one could ask: what has the left done to mobilise anything else but an increasingly dull apathy among young people in recent decades? 

Yes, what is the left actually mobilising? 

The school elite? Those who «say the right thing» to gain recognition within today’s society and who will ensure that society does not significantly change?

For those who have forgotten: The Left – at its historical best – have been movements that have been FEARLESS, courageous, pushed the boundaries of what we are «allowed to say» and «allowed to do». 

“Straight through law to victory!» THAT was the motto when the labor movement and the left were revolutionary movements. 

But what is it called today?

There are positives and negatives within the «politically correct» social democracy that we have today. Individuals who declare themselves to be offended, we must all «feel» what we «are» or «need». Individualism is enormous and often flattened into something superficial that is turned into the most important thing in the world.

No wonder young people (or old people) don’t see the point in voting one way or the other. 

Because does it really apply to anything special? 

What? 

Is there something at stake?

It often seems that you start every move only after ensuring it won’t lead to controversy.

Yes, God forbid controversy – that’s the worst thing that can happen! 

When you then have to «balance the message» up and down and from here-to-the-moon; propose «the small but important” cuts and pluses and minuses on the budgets… 

Yes, a social democratic statement pattern, which many often miss; because what are they actually SAYING? 

Is it anything? 

Is there really anything in particular they would change? 

Sometime in 2040 perhaps? 

Select a committee first?

The litmus test of apathy is clear: 

Rødt and SV’s parliamentary representatives have become so popular in the mainstream that VG, NRK and Dagbladet’s editorial staff have slipped into and past AP already among those they are most comfortable with. 

So, reality check: Is this a GOOD sign? 

If the left only has a few small positives and negatives to heave into the election campaign?

No substantial, important differences that detonates a border between the right and the left and that EVERYONE can see? 

And, yes, perhaps especially the young; but also the elderly, we stop listening, it becomes entertainment where those who can say something a little funny or striking might manage to wake us up for a short moment… 

And the media praises, laughs along and votes up and down. 

Rinse and repeat.

Entertainment. 

Competition; 2 stars? 5? 

Haha… 

Media, owned and controlled by capitalists and circles of acquaintances who defend the existing system. 

Of course. 

But the left should still be in the forefront to change society so that you dare to think and do something more! 

Dare to grumble, be labeled a troublemaker, be ridiculed. Don’t jump around in the circus to be «liked» or praised by as many carefully selected media «experts» as possible! 

What about standing for positions that are banned by the capitalists and war profiteers? 

But of course it is comfortable inside the duck pond, and I see little sign that the parties on the left have thought their way out of it.
On the contrary, the left seem as comfortable there as any of the others, and people notice that, and the youth are not so stupid that they don’t get it when they look for politicians who want something more, something different, something to reach for.

And how did that happen? 

Yes, for the simple reason that the «left» in today’s NATO countries, and especially in countries that cling closely to the US and NATO’s wars, have actually abandoned the priority that the left had in the past: domestic politics decides how we live. Foreign policy is about IF we are going to live at all. 

This means that foreign policy, and the struggle against war in particular, is something that cannot be de-prioritised. 

The variations in domestic politics are also so small that people often yawn through them. 

And yes, I know many will scream now: but what about….!!?? 

You are wrong… because… but we mean…!! 

Yes, the left side proposes some small changes in the budgets. But they no longer engage in the big, society-changing conversations. 

The conversations and the organizations that formed the very basis for the revolutionary movements that became large and that actually stopped the First World War and changed the world at that time for the better. 

But the left in Norway does not remind the citizens of this any longer. Now there is hardly a soul who dares to mention that it was the revolutionaries on both sides of the war who managed to stop the First World War. 

If the opponents of the war had joined the ranks of social democrats and supported war appropriations, then the war would have continued to rage. 

So what are we doing today in 2023? 

Should we dare to become as unpopular among those in power as the Bolsheviks and Spartacists in Germany were during the First World War? 

Or is it too comfortable to be «inside»? 

It has always been that way. 

And this time it applies as then: 

It is about stopping an ongoing war between great powers where hundreds of thousands die on the battlefield, and where this time it could end in a big «bang» for all of humanity.

So then you can ask yourself, what is more comfortable: – Waiting for the «bang» or joining in to stop the war and build up a real left again?