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Middle class has missed a chance

The middle class is the backbone of any society. When the middle class stands up and actively participates in public affairs, it presents an opportunity to establish a civic-minded society.

But the middle class can have multiple faces. When considered from the Marxist labor theory of value -- which says that the value of a product is based on the amount of labor put into it, and that the surplus value that goes into the pockets of the bourgeoisie is an exploitation of the worker -- there is naturally an enduring antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the working class. But the middle class doesn't have a permanent enemy and has political connections with both of the opposing classes. For example, the German Free Democratic Party, which represents the middle class, sometimes allies itself with the working class' Social Democratic Party and at other times with the conservative parties.

In terms of their political leanings, the middle class can be the foundation of civil society, but it can also become the main support for a fascist regime. Adolf Hitler, admired and respected by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), built a fascist party supported by the middle class -- similar to regimes in Italy and Spain -- after arriving in Taiwan. Therefore the key reason why people choose to identify with one political party or another is built on this ideological duality.

When the middle class looks favorably upon individualism, diversity and freedom, it becomes the foundation of society. But when it values exclusive nationalism, collectivism, homogeneity and hero worship and chooses an unforgivable enemy, then the middle class becomes the main supporter of fascism.

When the red crowds of protesters demanding that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) step down first appeared, a number of academics hailed the birth of Taiwan's civil society. The red crowds certainly represented a gathering of the middle class. But after so many days of protest, do they really seem to be taking steps towards the creation of a civil society? Are they acting more like a part of a civic-minded society or a fascist one?

First, their strong bent toward Chinese nationalism makes them hostile toward those Taiwanese, and even Hong Kongers, who support a Taiwanese state. This kind of behavior shows a very intolerant unitary value system. Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) and his adherents said that the tens of thousands of people who came out to oppose his Million Voices Against Corruption campaign on Sept. 16 and support the president were "soulless scarecrows." Wang Li-ping (王麗萍), former spokeswoman for the anti-Chen campaign, said that integrity had left the DPP while corruption had stayed behind. In exposing their disdain and superiority when comparing middle class ethics to the opposing rural lower class, they had also found their enemy.

Hitler made an enemy of the Jews, while Mussolini's enemy was the proletarian Communist Party. The collectivism displayed by the anti-Chen forces has now galvanized the rural southern masses, and we see the emergence of both nationalism and a class enemy. The labor movement's basic strategy has always been to promote uniformity when dealing with its permanent class enemy.

Now the anti-Chen campaign's second-in-command, who is adept at handling labor movements, has adopted this approach for the middle class. This has given the middle class -- which is free to ally with who it pleases, and lacks a natural arch-enemy and has the potential to become the backbone of a civic-minded society -- an evil enemy.

When Shih -- who campaign spokesman Jerry Fan (范可欽) has called a charismatic hero in a world of chaos -- linked God and his followers by solemnly kneeling down before the crowds to thank heaven and the people, he became the only intermediary between the two. With moving humility, he gathered the will of the people and put it all upon his hero's shoulders.

The more modest Shih is, the more enraptured the crowd leaders become in their worship of him. The kneeling, "sieging," red coloring and other ritualistic and symbolic actions reveal unparalleled understanding of crowd control. It is meant to boost the crowd's ego, give it a sense of purity, and make it feel as if it were the incarnation of absolute virtue. This is what Hitler excelled at and Chiang lacked.

I certainly don't believe that those in the anti-Chen headquarters are consciously trying to establish a fascist movement.

I believe that Shih, Fan and director of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights Chien Hsi-chieh all are good people. But Shih's heroic nature, Fan's aesthetic talents and Chien's misguided use of a class struggle strategy and concern for crowd aesthetics, as well as their insensitivity to Taiwan's blue-green north-south divide, seem to show that they are not interested in approaching this issue with an understanding of politics and economics. They have increasingly led their crowds towards uniformity, and hence unnecessarily passed up the chance to lead the roused middle class toward creating a rational civil society.

They are good people with a fierce sense of justice, but intellectual laziness has made them squander this opportunity. As for the academics who praised the "siege of the city" as the emergence of a civic-minded society, it is even clearer that they have no idea what they are talking about. Despite these mistakes, it is not too late to turn things around with a little effort. If we don't, we will not only have thrown away our opportunity to establish a civic-minded society, but we may never be able to mend the deep rifts this conflict has created in Taiwanese society.

Lin Cho-shui is a Democratic Progressive Party legislator.

Translated by Marc Langer
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