No democratic socialist who has carefully considered the issue would call for the simple toppling of a statue of Abraham Lincoln.
The cause of democratic socialism, the cause we have inherited from our forefathers Marx and Engels, is hindered by the widespread popular conception of it as one of indiscriminate iconoclasm and transgression. We democratic socialists must take care to accurately represent democratic socialism as a constructive ideology, as a constructive revolutionary ideology that recognizes, respects, and admires the very much imperfect but progressive and emancipatory elements of human history that serve as our foundation. As one that, acknowledging this foundation we stand upon, strives to realize a new mode of production and stage in human history, to realize a post-production for exchange world of mutual aid and the reign of a meaningful and thorough democracy (and through doing so emancipate the billions presently under the lash of Capital and safeguard the planet for their progeny), not one of, among other things, simply screaming, raving and tearing things down, one of simple destruction, denigration, and defacement for destruction, denigration, and defacement’s sake.
We must point out that democratic socialism, while a non-conservative, and indeed, revolutionary and futurist ideology, only seeks to denounce and remove from places of veneration that not of the progressive and emancipatory sort, and destroy those things which stand directly in the way of the realization of socialism. That it is, again, an ideology focused on building through majoritarian means a new, majoritarian, production for use economic regime, a new democratic mode of production, on, through majoritarian means, emancipating humanity, not simply one that seeks to denigrate and destroy all which is simply “old” or “normal”. That it is, again, an ideology that respects and admires the progressive forces that brought us to the point where we now stand, that calls for a world unlike any yet realized, but appreciates the fact that we stand on the shoulders of giants, those that have brought us to a place further than square one, that recognizes their lives and efforts were necessary to bring us to this point.
As part of this effort, we must explicitly contrast democratic socialism with contemporary radical liberalsm and anarchism that generally fetishizes iconoclasm, that advocates destruction of all that exists for its own sake. We must contrast the Marxian materialist approach to history with, and loudly oppose, reactionary, right and left “relativist”, and “left idealist” views of the past, as well as the general program and end goals of the various strains of radical liberalism and anarchism. We must make known our admiration for men and women of history who can be deemed progressive forces of history, who helped nudge the world closer to the realization of socialism, from bourgeois radical liberals of the Eighteenth Century to the Hinton Helpers, Harriet Tubmans, and Abraham Lincolns and the Robert Owens, Ferdinand Lassalles, and Vera Zasuliches of the Nineteenth, and so on.
And, as part of this effort, we must not accomodate simple raw destructive impulse, lest we scare off those rightfully opposed to indiscriminate destruction and simple chaos, and lest we cultivate attitudes of opposition to whatever the prevailing order of the day is- attitudes that may be employed by Reaction against the forces of socialism one day. We must not accomodate the sort of attitudes helped fuel both the meteoric rise of the alt-right (with its playfully outlandish Neo-Fascist and Neo-Nazi affronts to many of the “sacred cows" of post-war Western society, typically fueled by desire to simply hurt and transgress as much as by genuine bigotry) several years ago and the raw, hysteric iconoclasm of 2020- the "transgression and spewing of bile for its own sake" attitude of so many disaffected members of Generations Y and Z. It is not as if we should not strive to the uttermost to win over the disaffected and left behind that turn to iconoclasm and raw transgression for emotional release- we definitely should- but these attitudes of rage must be transformed into constructive, class conscious ones towards the tearing down of the Dictatorship of Capital AND building a better world, not simply opposing that which reigns or prevails or has reigned or prevailed simply because it reigns or prevails or has reigned or prevailed, or all which comes to reign or prevail simply because it comes to reign or prevail. We must not simply accomodate such pathology or consider those still under its spell democratic socialists, consider them members of our movement’s ranks, just as we must not simply accomodate reactionary and bigoted social pathology or consider those still under its spell democratic socialists, consider them members of our movement’s ranks.We must educate people and help simple rage develop into Marxian historical materialist understanding and class consciousness.
I am not suggesting we not be vociferous in our opposition to Capital or "love our enemies", be timorous, reticent, or diffident. I am not suggesting we refrain from aggressively campaigning for the removal of reactionary idols from places of veneration or exposing the rogues of history for who they are. But I am saying that in developing opposition to Capital, we must honestly represent democratic socialism and vocally stand against simple opposition to and hatred of all which prevails or has prevailed simply because it has prevailed. We must develop and apply historical materialist analysis and strive to establish a better world, not simply tear down what stands or reigns today simply because it stands or reigns, or, indeed, tear down what stands or reigns tomorrow simply because it reigns then. We must show that democratic socialism is neither an ideology that makes apologies for or calls for the veneration of the reactionaries of history, nor a gerontophobic ideology that hates all that has been simply because it has been. We do not want to establish chaos,we do not wish to bring about simple tumult and disorder.
Democratic socialism must be popularly understood for what it is- an ideology for the emancipation of all under Capital’s whip and a rational, scientific ideology adamantly but cool-headedly seeking to build something better for humanity, rather than one that is simply destructive, rather than one that simply wishes to immolate all which has preceded today. It must show it is meant for all victims of Capital for the whole of the greater working class. It must show it is an ideology of emancipation and redemption for all, not self-righteousness, sanctimony, and non-constructive rage.
-Strom McCallum