“I worry about where the young left-wing scholars are—Chomsky was born in 1928 and Baker in 1958 and Ellerman in 1943, so I’m not sure where the new generation is.”
“I worry about the extent to which the left has been relegated to the wilderness. But the main worry is that the left often seems to be so small that it could fit around a campfire—I wouldn’t be nearly as worried if there were at least a big left out there in the wilderness.”
“Can someone help me reach the left? I’d be incredibly grateful for any help that anyone could provide!”
I think that our world is probably doomed. But I also think that there’s a chance that we can save our world. And pessimism and optimism are irrelevant anyway—we should have both pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.
The thing that really interests me in politics is finding the arguments that are big and solid and hidden—in other words, I want to find the arguments that are:
(1) massively consequential for society
(2) not at all flimsy or dubious or precarious
(3) completely undiscussed in the media and completely unknown to everyone
These three things are the aspects that I want an argument to have. And the scholars who come to mind when I think about (1) and (2) and (3) are:
These scholars are all part of “the left” in the sense that they challenge power—the whole “left vs. right” thing is obviously a loose and unclear and confused thing, and all three of these scholars express views that many would associate with “the right”.
I worry about where the young left-wing scholars are—Chomsky was born in 1928 and Baker in 1958 and Ellerman in 1943, so I’m not sure where the new generation is.
As for the left in general, does it even exist?
I chose this piece’s image—the people around the fire—based on the fact that it often feels to me that the left is just a tiny group of people huddled around a campfire out in the wilderness.
I worry about the extent to which the left has been relegated to the wilderness. But the main worry is that the left often seems to be so small that it could fit around a campfire—I wouldn’t be nearly as worried if there were at least a big left out there in the wilderness.
I’ve been on Substack for about a year. And I’m getting better and better at making decent pieces, so I’m trying to find out where I should go online in order to reach people—I asked my friend the following:
Isn’t there supposed to be a large audience of open-minded and progressive people out there somewhere? That can be tapped into?
And my friend responded:
I don’t know of one. The non-crazy left is not very large.
And I raised this issue with my other friend and my other friend quipped as follows:
I actually personally founded the Non-Crazy Left in 1998. There are ten members.
So I want to reach an audience, but it’s not a sure thing that the audience that I’m trying to reach even exists.
Can someone help me reach the left? I’d be incredibly grateful for any help that anyone could provide!
Hi Andrew, I think in order to reach a larger audience perhaps you can build some name recognition for yourself. One way to do it would be to write a piece for a left magazine such as Jacobin or Current Affairs etc. You have a lot of great material already on this substack. You could even re-use and expand some of it to write a really nice article (or articles) which I am sure would have a good chance of being published. And in your byline there, your substack can be mentioned. Thus, you would attract more eyeballs to this substack. Its a slow process but I think getting published in a left outlet could be a good start! All the best!
Reluctantly side-stepping the more difficult question about the left, to comment on expanding your audience: I went through your back catalogue and you have a really impressive range of interviews. These are really interesting and you've put a lot of thought into them. I wonder if you might consider making video versions of some of them, drawing out their main conclusions and ideas, i.e., the Gallistel and Levin ones.
This would not be cannibalizing your Substack so much as promoting it, since there is a real appetite for digestible interviews on interesting scientific and philosophical topics on YT, not to mention the boost by the discovery algorithm. Perhaps think of it like taking out an ad for the main gig.