Viva La Revolucion

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We are now living in postmodern capitalism, a world of fake and constant free choice, the choice between Wal-Mart and Target, Starbucks or Dukin' Donuts. It is a hedonistic world of perpetual desire, a world of multi-lateral, multi-national, multi-cultural exploitation.

A world where exploitation has been almost entirely exported to Third World countries while we live in middle-class here. While antagonisms continue to fester here, we have seen what the new breed of capitalism will be. The bailout was only one example of how capitalism will have to reinvent socialism in order to survive. Big corporations do not want a free-market, they want a government that minimizes their investment and venture risk, a government that is focused on protecting the property of the few. Corporations are the new face of muli-cultural perspective, globalization the harbinger of the free-movement of property and the enslavement of people.

The corporations of this country fear the fundamentalist right-wing, though they have been their tools for all these years. That is why the face of the bailout was that of the Democratic Party, those poor, boring scapegoats on which the basic function of our society now relies. If fundamentalists were to have their way, how would companies secure bailouts should their risky investment schemes fail, how would they maintain the steady, cheap labor of illegal immigrants, how would they avoid the protectionism of global trade?

They have thus turned to the liberals of this country, the sorry excuse for a left wing-representation. The liberals, as opposed to left-wingers, have become the new pillar upon which global capitalism stands. Through self-described intellectualism, liberals have cynically recognized that a truly egalitarian society is impossible and so they pay lip service to these ideals as they allow for “necessary exceptions” and bailouts to occur. This new constituency has given rise bullshit terms like “fair trade coffee beans” and biodegradable smoothie cups. Starbucks, the new liberal commercial spin still participates is the most brutal anti-union action of any American country and companies like Wal-Mart exploit the welfare-to-work programs of this country to secure indentured slaves to do subsidized work. No, we don’t live in a purely and clearly fascist society. We live in the new bastard child of neo-liberal socialism.

Socialism has been co-opted, we must examine the root of the problem, which is the coercion of labor by holding our survival as individuals for ransom and the idea of private property. We must not simply abandon capitalism and socialism, but begin the war of symbolic violence against property while practicing non-violence towards humans. Yes, blow up corporate art, deface corporate property, and trespass on corporate land. Do not enact your symbolic violence of the private property of the ones around you. Demonstrate the illusion of the private to them by destroying the belongings of corporations, entities of pure property and no humanity. This will radically reverse the trend of the modern world which will sacrifice humanity for the sake of property.

The revolution will be psychological. We must refuse to be victims of the psychological “disavowal”, where we accept these problems as the truth as a means of saying “That is enough now let me live my life.” We must not use the disavowal to rhetorically recognize the structural violence of this system as a means of justifying our passive existence in a consumerist life. We must force ourselves to recognize the harsh Real, the reality of the death and suffering that we are complicit with. We must see that we are murderers and feel this guilt, to launch us into action. We must firmly recognize our Symbolic relationship with this Real violence, so as to stand firm in the face of the usurpation capitalism (like the manufacture of Che Guevara t-shirts by Banana Republic), and use this new strength to crush the Imaginary of the American Dream.

This is a call to the left. Wake up. The time has come to radicalize, to embrace and reclaim the roots of our country, the revolutionary traditions that are the blessing of democracy. We must reclaim our history, reclaim the Constitution and radically transform it. We must write a new Declaration of Independence. Yes, most of the Founding Fathers were rich land owners, bent on protecting their own property. Remember the ideas. When ask what he thought of Western Civilization, Gandhi replied “I think it’s a good idea”. Liberals/democrats/independents, you are fast becoming the new tools of global capitalism, even as you point and make fun at FOX news and the Tea Party. Look to them with fear, they are the Black Shirts, Stormtroopers. It took only two years for Hitler to take power. We face two futures: reactionary revolution and fascism, or the complete victory of neo-liberal capitalism and fascism. Let us envision another. Do not be content with buying your coffee from companies that practice exploitation Lite, to vote for vague campaign promises of “hope” and rhetorical liberal ideals like “change”. Fight for revolution, the only change worthy of humanity. The left wing of the country must spite the new-emerging Red Scare of Glenn Beck and proudly name themselves radicals, not liberals. Don’t fear the name “communist”. Wear it with pride, in the face of propaganda. Do not be afraid to begin from the beginning, as Lenin wrote in On Climbing a High Mountain, follow no dogmatic road. But do not be afraid of “conformity”. Anti-conformity is not valuable in itself, it is infinitely regressive and equally as blind as conformity. It is a vital tool against injustice and must be used as such. This is a call to the liberals of this country to stop, set down their double whipped whappachino moacha with peppermint, put down Newsweek and think. Are you really standing up for what you believe in?

It will not be a mission of moral relativity but a time to finally take the ethical stance of “No, I will not live at the cost of human suffering, imperialism in the Middle East, dictatorships in Latin America, utter enslavement in Africa, and the death of industrial workers in Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico etc. No, I will not live at the cost of future generations as the world in which I live is sucked bare of all natural beauty and resource. No, I will not be a person who would rather ask the question of ‘What do I want?’ than ‘What is right?’ No, and I will not do so with a passive statement of my opinion. I will act. ” We must refuse to be affected by the psychological disavowal of the harsh Real, so as to live a more peaceful life, and recognize the fact that we are all murderers for the lives that we live. The revolution begins in you.

Examining Capitalism

It is historical to say that all past systems of government have been discovered to be faulted. It is inevitable that the people discover that there are better ways of doing things, humans have adaptation pre-programmed.

However, by the same logic, the system, now defunct, must have been better than one preceding it. The the consequential functionality is much harder to perceive these days but no less, capitalism had its time.

A system of private ownership and undiscriminating opportunity was something of dreams and utopia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Capitalism was radically different. It was so progressive, it was revolutionary. It was the dangerous, liberal idea of its time, an experiment that was decried as 'Utopian', people thought it would never work.

To truly reach the depth of thought I wish, while still keeping you, reader, in pace with these thoughts, let's have some definitions.

Feudalism: A political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century, based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture.--The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

In other words, feudalism was a system that was based on economic and ancestral standing. You can understand why a world of equal opportunity could hold such allure to people who lived their lives the way their fathers did, people who knew their children would till the same land for all their lives. This political system was based on economic hierarchies, Kings ruled lords, lords ruled knights, knights ruled serfs, and serf owned nothing, not even themselves. Now, while that sounds like the majority were living in wealth and social standing, the reality is the ratio of lords to serfs was probably 1 for every 10,000 (approx. number, undoubtedly more) This system was explicit in exploitation of the masses. These people lived on the same land, worked it all their lives, kept ten percent of what they harvested in return for the simple right to live on the land of a lord they had sworn servitude to.

Capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. --The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

My definition will differ, due to the actual functional nature of capitalism. The free market is not exclusively an economic system. Economics, loosely defined, is the manner in which goods and services are distributed. Politics, loosely, are the decisions of how to implement this distribution. They are not mutually exclusive.

The capitalist system is also a social system, as much as the feudalistic system was. I will elaborate later.

However, democracy and capitalism are not synonymous. Democracy can be implemented independent of the free market. This discrepancy leads to one conclusion. American democracy is imperfect. Capitalism leeches the justice, equality, and liberty of democracy for personal gain, much like a parasite.

At the core of the definition of capitalism are the words "free market". This also translates into a free-for-all, which is the full realization of capitalism, little or no regulation of the market. Logically, in a contest, it is inevitable that there will be a winner and a loser. It is intrinsic in capitalism that there will always be at least one divide. Winner vs. loser, rich vs. poor, bourgeoisie vs. proletarian. It is empirically and logically obvious that a free market will leave the majority at the bottom because their can really only be one winner.

I will say this straight. The free market leaves absolutely no one watching the actions of these private interests. This leaves a system of rules, ethical and practical, absent from the system. This is the first way that capitalism becomes a social system. Conservatives seem to think that the answer for this problem is simple. And even better it is constitutional. Religion.

These groups now claim that they are directed and humbled by the "invisible hand" of holy morality. I understand that this is the wrong application of the term, I use it to illustrate the thought process that is behind this choice of ethical dictation. It is invisible. In fact, it is entirely absent. The intrinsic problem with faith-based punitive measures are that they are typically enacted late. This leaves the wrong-doer the "freedom" to act with no direct consequences, at least not in this life. The point of directing the market is so that people, here, is justice.Just as we regulate society (no murder), the market is regulated. For justice, equality, and the subsequent freedom of these to ideas. Leaving the discipline to the after life isn't much of an incentive, especially for people who have all the worldly luxuries to gain for their actions. And thus, things become even more entwined. As the parasite of capitalism continues to drain the equality from Democracy, the infection of sham religion begins to decay liberty. This constitutional right is becoming so unchecked, these vines will soon choke the life from the tree of liberty. Religion leaves too much power in too few hands. Massed religion is by its nature divisive. Not wrong, that is for another essay, but it separates people, adds another layer to the individuals identity and the resulting division. And now it is creeping into places it shouldn't, like government, school, policy, and now war. Refer to this essay: "Jesus Killed Mohammad" by Jeff Sharlet.
It isn't that freedom of religion shouldn't be protected with utmost passion; that is just it, it isn't. Since the majority of people in American prescribe to Christianity, not many remain to stand up for the minorities. So the Christian Right can operate absent of opposition, hiding under the guise of “freedom of religion” while denying others theirs.
But I digress. Forgive me.
Capitalism assures no discipline. It assures no accountability, responsibility, nor does it sponsor justice. This is where, when Democracy attempts to dislodge the parasite, the thing clamps on hard and burrows deeper to avoid extradition. When justice is pursued in this country, money comes before minority, cash comes before casualty, profit before protection of natural rights.
In a system presided over by profit, a morally devolved object by its inherently greedy nature, the inevitable occurs. Democracy is just a word when it goes to the highest bidder.

The final and most terrible aspect of the capitalist system is its naturally global ambitions. The inevitable globalization of profit leads to what Chomsky calls "third-worldization" (pHD = right to make up words), or the division of wealth into high an low extremes. Ten percent of the population lives with ninety percent of the wealth. Democracy is theirs. The inevitable outreach into foreign markets is not only dictated by the search for more profit, it is intrinsic in the production system of capitalism. Consumerism, a topic within itself, sponsors what Marx called the "Theory of Overproduction". In few words, the capitalist means of production produce more consumables than Labor, or the people, can buy back. They refuse to pay the workers enough even to establish consumerist equality. A helpful graphic...

Soon, their is simply no capital in the hands of Labor to buy back material from Capital.

But the truly devastating effect of capitalism comes from the aggressive means by which it realizes profit. The continued globalization of profit leads to world wide "free-for-all" model, where on economy stands above the rest. The de facto economic empire will inevitably lead to the single executive, just as on a national level.

This is a model intrinsic in the functionality of capitalism. The single winner, or group of elites, wills stand above the rest, above the misery and poverty of the third world. And it will come here. Reform means nothing. Charging the brick wall a little slower will still end up with broken appendages. The system is systematically flawed. Being reactionary in nature, capitalism will not simply ave us as the wage-slaves we are today. Things can only go backwards as we accept more more reactionary means of social and economic organization. It will make slave of us all. Slaves to materialism, slaves to profit, slaves to capital, saves to the elite. Is private ownership really a factor in freedom? Maybe in 1776. Capitalism has had its time.