Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 01:59:20 -0600 (CST)
From: "William S. Lear" <rael-AT-zopyra.com>
Subject: Re: M-I: The Vortex of the World Market, or Capitalism Sucks


On Tue, November 18, 1997 at 23:50:48 (-0500) james m blaut writes:
>Doug:
>
>1. You comment "...it can only happen through political
>action."
>
>I repeat my question: will working-class people engage in
>political action at the level needed to overthrow
>capitalism if they are not hurting economically? I can't
>imagine this happening.

On the contrary, I think the logic is quite straightforward.
Capitalism might be "overthrown" in a number of ways.  One way it
might be overthrown is if, during good economic times (how this is
maintained is another question), workers organize themselves, and gain
political awareness, and make inroads through the political system.

Capitalism came from feudalism like a ghost in the night---nobody
predicted it.  It didn't arise during "bad times".  It just happened.
A similar scenario might see the collapse of capitalism and the rise
of, well, whatever is next...

Capitalism is a house of cards protected by a vast array of
deterrents.  Once a few of the key deterrents are broken down, it
might just collapse.  I think Doug's logic is quite solid---if you
want to attack something, it's better if you are not struggling for
your and your family's life on the assembly line, or in the soup
kitchens.

Imagine good times lasting (remember, you are the one who asked that
it be shown that it can happen "if workers are not hurting
economically") for quite some time, 10, 15 years.  Imagine people with
leisure time to spare, imagine them actually organizing and
confronting the barriers in the political system and actually changing
them (ballot rules, public finance of campaigns, free media, etc.)
step by small step.

Capital, of course, could always try to slam on the economic breaks,
but remember, we'll stick with your scenario.

Gradually, an awareness creeps into society, just like the awareness
has been creeping in that racism is intolerable (hard to see over past
10-20 years, granted, but long-term this is so), and that sexism is
also intolerable....then, the unthinkable: capitalist relations are
seen as being on the same moral plane.  Then, an unstoppable plunge
forward to self-determination and utopia...

None of this is to say that this is the way it *must* happen.  But
neither is the opposite scenario any more or less convincing---I can
see a perfectly reasonable scenario arising from deprivation (instead
of energy from leisure, you fight like a cat trapped in a corner, who
knows?).

I don't think debating any of this will get us anywhere.  We have no
idea how or when the system will fall, or even if it will at all
before it destroys the entire planet.  These sorts of events are the
things that are, to use a term much in vogue, chaotic, and could be
set off by any number of things.

Our job, among other things, I think, is simply to try to raise
awareness of the moral emptiness of the whole enterprise, don't you
think?


Bill


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