We Can Create a Much Better World — So Why Haven’t We?
Recently, a fellow member of the Classical Left who knows that we have the capacity to create a better world asked me why we have not yet. These were the eight answers I gave him that provide the basic gist as to why we, the working class, have yet to do so despite it now being very technologically viable… not to mention very necessary for our collective survival as late stage capitalism brings our civilization and the very ecosystem we depend on rapidly closer to catastrophe.
The eight main reasons the working class has not created a better world as of yet are, in no particular order:
1 — People are too used to the system they know, and fear change too much. So, they keep seeking superficial variations of the current system — which they call “reforms” — as the solution. Which, of course, only keeps the current status quo going that much longer.
2 — People are too indoctrinated with learned helplessness, where they insist the system cannot be changed (except maybe in the most superficial of ways that do not end up really changing anything). They believe those in power are just too powerful to stop, and the current institutions too ingrained to alter. Take a guess as to who that ends up benefiting.
3 — People are too indoctrinated into reflexively defending and supporting capitalism, believing that any other possible alternative would be worse. Along with the false claim that all other alternatives have been tried, and all led to fascism. As if late stage capitalism is not quickly heading there itself.
4 — People are indoctrinated with the Social Darwinistic belief that “human nature” is immutably hard-wired for greediness, competitiveness, violence, bigotry, etc. In other words, they think the fault lies within humanity itself, not with the type of social and economic environment in which we are forced to operate within.
If that were true, doesn’t that mean that those of us fighting for actual fundamental change are somehow violating some sort of immutable genetic code? Sort of like birds suddenly choosing not to fly south? Do we constitute some sort of genetic mutation geared towards genuine social progress? Hmmm… it seems the Social Darwinists have a conundrum to ponder.
5 — People are often told, illogically, that a classless, moneyless, truly egalitarian society would have been created a long, long time ago if it was actually possible, since organized human civilization has existed for about 10,000 years (according to the current accepted model of human history).
What they are indoctrinated against considering is that up until the Industrial Revolution, humanity did not have the technological capacity to mass produce items, and thus were unable to provide an abundance for all that could end high stakes competition, poverty, the concept of financial debt, and any material justification for class rule and money/barter . So, that makes as much sense as arguing, “We’ll never get a person on Mars over the next few decades, because humanity has been around so long that we would have done it by now if it were possible.”
6 — People are indoctrinated with the belief that an actual classless society was attempted by the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia and in China around the same era, and both failed because humanity couldn’t live up to the ideal.
In actuality, those nations during that era lacked the technological development to establish such a society. So, the masses allowed Lenin’s and Mao’s vanguard parties to create a new form of class divided society to industrialize the nation, after which (surprise!) the ruling classes of that post-Industrial era refused to turn the system over to the working class and strictly maintained class rule.
This didn’t prove that humanity is intrinsically incapable of creating such a system, but rather proved two other things. One, you need an advanced industrial base to achieve this (comparable to that currently extant in what we call “First World” nations), as Marx & Engels were quite clear on. Two, you cannot rely on a ruling class to give us such a system; it was to be done by the workers themselves and not by a handful of privileged class tyrants (whether capitalistic or bureaucratic in nature) who claim to “represent” the workers and their interests. The most a ruling class will ever give the workers are reforms… if they feel like it.
7 — Too many workers are apathetic because they are overwhelmed with taking care of their own personal nest with 70-hour work weeks (usually due to having to work two or more jobs at a time), dealing with all sorts of bills and personal issues to keep a roof over their heads, the lights on, the cell phones running, food on the table, and to relieve as much debt as possible any given month without incurring too much more. As one of my friends once told me, “I don’t have the time to fight for change.”
8 — Too many workers cannot get over their fetishistic connection with money. They feel a sense of power in their hands when holding ten hundred dollar bills they may have acquired from a paycheck on a good week, without considering that even $100,000 in funds only allows them access to a tiny fraction of the value of the products they helped create.
They have been indoctrinated with the belief that money is necessary, and that if it’s not involved as a component of acquiring what your work has earned or as compensation for a reasonable amount of work performed for society, that means you are getting something “for free” or are working “for free.” They cannot yet get around to the idea that we can receive the full fruit of our labor for only a very reasonable amount of work without money being part of the equation, and far more of it than we ever could with money.
Money, i.e., funds, should not be necessary to disburse resources in a post-Industrial era of abundance. This only puts artificial “fiscal” limits on the distribution of the wealth and creates a form of artificial scarcity, as opposed to the real material scarcity of the pre-Industrial era of human civilization.
It’s also untrue, as too many people believe, that money is useful and necessary in assessing the “value” of an item or service. We can now use relatively simple software programs to do that quite easily, and to determine which products or services are most needed or most valued in any given human-inhabited sector of the world.
Money is a relic of the pre-Industrial era of real material scarcity, and is now totally archaic and unnecessary, as is the very concept of barter and commerce. It needs to go from human civilization before debt, artificial scarcity, and true material equality are to be achieved. We need to get over our reliance on it and perceived need for it. As well as the pipe dream that most of us in the working class are ever going to succeed in acquiring enough of it to live free of financial concern, let alone to live in obscene luxury like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, or Joe Biden-his-time.
The eight things above are what the working class needs to get over en masse if we are to achieve full class solidarity with the goal of fundamentally changing society and creating a better world for everyone.
These reasons why people have not yet ventured to produce progressive social changes, even though the technology is well-developed to facilitate progress is indicated by Christofer in this posting. Leon Trotsky, a leader of the 1917 Russian revolution, explained it this way in the preface to his book, "The History of the Russian Revolution":
"The point is that society does not change its institutions as need arises, the way a mechanic changes his instruments. On the contrary, society actually takes the institutions which hang upon it as given once for all. For decades the oppositional criticism is nothing more than a safety valve for mass dissatisfaction, a condition of the stability of the social structure. Such in principle, for example, was the significance acquired by the social-democratic criticism. Entirely exceptional conditions, independent of the will of persons and parties, are necessary in order to tear off from discontent the fetters of conservatism, and bring the masses to insurrection."
This's the post of yours that I resonate with. Concise and easy to understand. I pray that each of us can change for the better and in the process, society will be changed. X