Re: [Marxism] The consciousness of the masses

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Gary writes: "But we have not made the ultimate mistake of placing our faith
in capitalism and its avatars and that is precisely the mistake the workers
have and are making. However things will fall apart and the workers will not
be able to hold on to their illusions despite all the free beers and
sausages. Then we will have our fight with this rotten system and all who
sail in it."

I think Gary has hit on a very profound insight: "But we have not made the
ultimate mistake of placing our faith in capitalism and its avatars and that
is precisely the mistake the workers have and are making." This is the
difference between OUR movement, the movement of the Marxist intelligentsia
in the "advanced" capitalist countries, and the workers movement.

WE think in terms of "the ultimate mistake of placing our faith in
capitalism." Most regular working people, especially those of our sort of
age, think in terms of getting to retirement with a good or at least not too
badly decimated pension and social security system. There will come a day
when those will converge -- but that day has not yet come.

IN THE MEANTIME, we should consider things like, why is there such
significant ANTICAPITALIST radicalness and rebelliousness among layers of
the (needless to say, petty-bourgeois or petty-bourgeoisified)
intelligentsia but not among the true blue proletarians? Is it illegitimate,
or wrong? Should we demand that the scribblers, the professoriat and the
rest of the chattering classes instead give their wholehearted support to
the likes of Bush the Lesser and Dick "Rasputin" Cheney?

And even if this "radicalness" is MORE "illegitimate" than Thomas
Jefferson's slave sons, should we turn our back on it, ignore it, pretend it
isn't there, or even if it is there, that it is simply unworthy of our
attention?

Joaquin


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