Marx thought that capitalism would destroy itself, and be replaced with a harmonious society.
It would happen when exploitation got too dire, and the working class would organise itself and launch a revolution
In order to avoid this (exploitation getting too dire), it made sense to organise the working class as soon as possible – this is political communism, which didn’t really work.
Nowadays exploitation (and deprivation) are getting dire.
And instead of organising themselves as a class and unpicking the mechanisms of global capitalism, people just think that the other tribe is the enemy.
All wars start because the other tribe is doing supposedly something so wrong that it justifies violence, or even eradication. The others are “cockroaches” who oppress us, thus our “liberation” means getting rid of them, as a step towards the utopia that we’re going to build.
And all of this starts because people (collectively) have no access to resources. And they do want access to these resources.
The problem is that they want it from people who think that the resources they have are too scarce to share. And sometimes this is objectively true. If there’s a drought in your country but the next country is less affected, the other country is by no means affluent, it is struggling too!
The West depicts the warring parties as “savages”. And in any case, it’s their problem.
Class did not organise itself. Evidence suggests that scapegoating takes place instead. When exploitation and deprivation get dire, we’ll blame the neighbouring tribe. Not the pension funds.
Thus capitalism doesn’t get challenged. And it keeps on doing its thing: concentrating resources in the hands of the few, and not giving a rat’s that some people are left with no land, no job, no money and no food.
If you’re left with no land, no job, no money and no food, and there is not obvious enemy, you can always migrate to the cities.
There, if you’re lucky, you’ll find an institution that organises solidarity among its members. There, if you’re lucky, those who still have a job will share their stuff with you.
Every now and again, developers will see your community as “a slum”, they will blame your community for all sorts of social evils and threaten to rase it, sometimes successfully.
And the world will wait for Western Christians to decide that they, too, may want to be members of that institution which organises solidarity among its members.
It would happen when exploitation got too dire, and the working class would organise itself and launch a revolution
In order to avoid this (exploitation getting too dire), it made sense to organise the working class as soon as possible – this is political communism, which didn’t really work.
Nowadays exploitation (and deprivation) are getting dire.
And instead of organising themselves as a class and unpicking the mechanisms of global capitalism, people just think that the other tribe is the enemy.
All wars start because the other tribe is doing supposedly something so wrong that it justifies violence, or even eradication. The others are “cockroaches” who oppress us, thus our “liberation” means getting rid of them, as a step towards the utopia that we’re going to build.
And all of this starts because people (collectively) have no access to resources. And they do want access to these resources.
The problem is that they want it from people who think that the resources they have are too scarce to share. And sometimes this is objectively true. If there’s a drought in your country but the next country is less affected, the other country is by no means affluent, it is struggling too!
The West depicts the warring parties as “savages”. And in any case, it’s their problem.
Class did not organise itself. Evidence suggests that scapegoating takes place instead. When exploitation and deprivation get dire, we’ll blame the neighbouring tribe. Not the pension funds.
Thus capitalism doesn’t get challenged. And it keeps on doing its thing: concentrating resources in the hands of the few, and not giving a rat’s that some people are left with no land, no job, no money and no food.
If you’re left with no land, no job, no money and no food, and there is not obvious enemy, you can always migrate to the cities.
There, if you’re lucky, you’ll find an institution that organises solidarity among its members. There, if you’re lucky, those who still have a job will share their stuff with you.
Every now and again, developers will see your community as “a slum”, they will blame your community for all sorts of social evils and threaten to rase it, sometimes successfully.
And the world will wait for Western Christians to decide that they, too, may want to be members of that institution which organises solidarity among its members.
1 comment:
Sounds about right, to me. Also sounds like we haven't made much progress since 1844 when Marx and the Tractarian priests were going hard at the same issue from different idealogical angles.
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