From Wilhelm Reich The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933)

Reich obviously believes the Left’s message – economic and political freedom – is more innately appealing to the working class than what fascism has to offer. His only complaint is the way the Left tries to deliver it (see previous blog). The alternative he prescribes (to indoctrinating the working poor on their economic disadvantage) is a kind of voluntary social reform work specifically addressing the authoritarian social institutions that plague western democracies.

Tackling Reform Socially Rather than Politically

He predicts the success of this approach based on a concept he refers to as “work-democracy.” This, according to Reich, is the creation of “natural” work and “natural” work settings – in which workers self-organize and carry out their work according to their training, experience and natural desire to perform to the best of their ability. As evidence, he describes work settings in which this already occurs – for example, in traveling work crews who carry out their duties at a distanced from a centralized headquarters. He sees the potential for the Left to create voluntary “natural” work settings – which will ultimately draw in the teenagers and young adults they seek to engage.

Are There Lessons from the Sixties?

As I recall, we did a lot of this in the sixties and seventies – and simply stopped for some reason. We attempted to address our authoritarian, hierarchical educational system by starting our own alternative schools, focused on curiosity, creativity, problem solving, positive reinforcement and role modeling, rather than rote memorization and authoritarian control and punishment. As a medical student, I volunteered to teach biology in an alternative high school. Then, for some for some reason, people lost interest in volunteering in alternative schools and turned them over to the educational system. Who were happy to run special schools that were alternative in name only – because of authoritarian administrative structures forced teachers to run their alternative classrooms in exactly the same way as traditional ones.

We also tried to address an authoritarian medical system by starting free clinics staffed by lay and peer support workers, as well as doctors, nurses and other health care workers who kept costs down by volunteering their time. Then somehow these clinics morphed into federally funded “community clinics,” where doctors and other health care workers nurses now command the same salaries – and unfortunately operate under the same hierarchal structures – as in mainstream hospitals and clinics.

We also ran (as volunteers) free after school centers for low income moms who couldn’t afford after school care. As well as women’s skills exchanges, where women traded childcare, housecleaning or yard work with woman plumbers, electricians and carpenters. To the best of my knowledge, these, too, have vanished.

Addressing an Acute Need

With more teenagers than ever dropping out of high school, there was never a more acute need for progressively oriented alternative high schools, free clinics and literacy and sex education classes. I’m talking about real sex education, where teenagers learn how to derive pleasure from sex and not just how to prevent pregnancy and STDs. And after working with teenagers for 32 years, I find nothing more heartbreaking than sitting with a 14 old girl agonizing over her first sexual encounter – an event, which more often than not, is totally one sided and exploitive because of her own and her partner’s ignorance of female sexuality.

Oh yes, how about free abortion counseling for pregnant teenagers (and adult women) who are thinking about abortion but feel incredibly guilty about the idea? Why should the Right-to-Life churches have the monopoly on abortion counseling?

There is a general agreement that the sixties produced a total shift – at least temporarily – in broad cultural attitudes. Why this occurred is still hotly debated. Many feel it was a willingness for progressive volunteers to experiment with new, more “free” approaches across a range of social institutions. With an estimated 20% of the US workforce presently unemployed, many of them teachers and health workers, I see a golden opportunity to give it another try.

To be continued with Reich’s view on women

More at http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com

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