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What is the role of a magazine in our era, and especially that of a radical leftist magazine? Is the role of its editor, to be a mere gatekeeper, rubber-stamping the quality of submissions; and yet beyond that exerting little to no social interaction regarding the shaping of a piece of writing? What does the medium of currency add to the dynamic of its relationships, anything positive? In the habits of our society, can we no longer be bothered to exert any effort on a social task without money taking the lead? For that matter, how many magazines or journals currently in existence can no longer afford to involve money in the creative labor of their operations? How much is this related to these types of mediums being in essence a hobby of those in charge; who make their economic living elsewhere, likely overwhelmingly in academia?

The standard model of “accountability” in the habits of our present society dominated by the commodity relation often depends on a certain relationship dynamic mediated through the process of consumption. It is thought that those who consume a product are granted some “democratic” recourse in bringing grievances which might arise in the alienated consumption process before a managerial body of the manufacturers of what is being consumed, including media products, as their manufacturers derive obvious benefits from having an audience or consumers. While it’s worth considering who stands over who here, the shape of this hierarchy is clear enough, even if the relationship contains some ambiguities akin to those present in the relations of master and slave.

Overwhelmingly this relationship will be purely alienated with the audience being more or less faceless peons gazing up at the image of a material status. But what responsibility do we have, if any, to the people we never meet in reality, yet, who may have commented to us through an online platform, or sent us an email? The world of art and writing is no doubt an absurdly cutthroat one ironically given the essential nature of its primary objects. These objects can in truth attain high levels of commercial value; structuring a social Darwinian system, an industry, in which its steep hierarchical indifference surprises no one. Especially no one is surprised, and rather implicitly accepts it, who has been indoctrinated into assuming that such a contrived cold, alienated normality is as natural as a reality principle. But it’s when one considers the nature of a categorically leftist form of the same, where one begins to wonder, if there is any room for emphasis on the overthrowing of certain norms of capitalist modernity which, in theory, could function completely differently were agents to merely become conscious of the fact that one can act otherwise.

What is more important to the daily or weekly operations of a leftist or radical leftist magazine, its competitiveness on a market of attention, or its potential resistance to those most alienating and cruel aspects of the system that most despise? What is the primary goal of such magazines, to accumulate followers? Are there any notions of how to democratize and increase meaningful participation, among those faceless statistics which are in the capitalist governed habits of our daily life, tremendously unimportant in their individual humanness; as they are overwhelmingly intended in this narcissistic reified habitus, to function only as mere algorithmic data of likes and subscription, boosting the engagement of the product? Is it right to strand a party deeply engaged with the message and critical of the medium; his potential contribution to be left in the dustbin of immurement in the conditioned narcissism of our consumer society? Is it fair to accept a piece of writing in one instance, then turn around and reject it when it appears it may take a bit of creative work to revise? When did the simple act of communication become more than the homo sapien could bear without the patronizing mediation of a boss paying one to keep their eyes glued? If this message gets through, please reply; otherwise you’re sure to hear from me again!