Capitalism

Capitalism is based on commodity production (production of goods for profit) and wage labor (labor power itself bought and sold as a commodity). There is less difference between the slave and the "free" worker than appears. Slaves, though they seem to be paid nothing, are provided with the means of their survival and reproduction, for which workers (who become temporary slaves during their hours of labor) are compelled to pay most of their wages. The fact that some jobs are less unpleasant than others, and that individual workers have the nominal right to switch jobs, start their own business, buy stocks or win a lottery, simply disguises the fact that the vast majority of people are collectively enslaved.

Modern society is centered around the production, distribution and consumption of material goods, rather than the happiness and satisfaction of its participants. Thus, modern man thinks of his life in terms of what he has "to show for it," rather than considering the life itself.

Today's average worker is used to thinking about the ends rather than the means. We spend most of our time and energy working at a job that in all likelihood does not fulfill our dreams. We look forward to payday every two weeks, for we count on our paycheck to make sense out of our lives: without it, we would feel like we were wasting our time. If we didn't look at the "consequences" of our actions as a justification for them, life would be unbearable. Insofar as our everyday experience of life is tedious and meaningless, we need to concentrate on the coming weekend, the next vacation, our next purchases, to fend off insanity. And eventually we are bound to generalize that mode of thinking to other parts of our lives: we come to evaluate possible actions according to the rewards they offer, just as we would evaluate a job according to the wage it offers.

Thus, the present has lost almost all significance for us. Instead we spend our lives always planning for the future: we study for a diploma, rather than for the pleasure of learning; we choose a job for social status, wealth, and "security," rather than for joy; we save our money for big purchases and vacation trips, rather than to buy our way out of wage slavery and into full time freedom.

Capitalist civilization has not yet been superseded anywhere, but it continues to produce its own enemies everywhere. The next rise of the revolutionary movement, radicalized by the lessons of past defeats and with a program enriched in proportion to the practical potentials of modern society, will immediately base itself on new everyday practices and on new types of human relationships.

Never in history has there been such a glaring contrast between what could be and what actually exists.

Those who don't face direct physical repression still have to face the mental repressions imposed by an increasingly mean, stressful, ignorant and ugly world. Those who escape economic poverty cannot escape the general impoverishment of life.

Yet this same development has made it possible to abolish the system of hierarchy and exploitation that was previously based on material scarcity and to inaugurate a new, genuinely liberated form of society.

Our use of the word "revolution" has nothing to do with the repugnant stereotypes that are usually evoked by the word (terrorism, revenge, political coups, manipulative leaders preaching self-sacrifice, zombie followers chanting politically correct slogans).

A liberated society can be created only by the active participation of the people as a whole, not by hierarchical organizations supposedly acting on their behalf. The point is not to choose more honest or "responsive" leaders, but to avoid granting independent power to any leaders whatsoever. Individuals or groups may initiate radical actions, but a substantial and rapidly expanding portion of the population must take part if a movement is to lead to a new society and not simply to a coup installing new rulers.

Modern revolution is all or nothing: individual revolts are bound to fail until an international chain reaction is triggered that spreads faster than repression can close in.

Is such a revolution likely? The odds are probably against it. But most revolutions have been preceded by periods when everyone scoffed at the idea that things could ever change.