Duped and Doped

Socialism is shared abundance. We've got the abundance - we just have to transform the way we distribute it.

Capital is simply money and commodities assigned to create a profit and be reinvested. Profit is made by the "magical" addition of surplus value to the value inherent in the product. The "added value," the profit, is produced by workers. And this capital is born to expand or die. The value of a commodity comes from the labor invested in it, including the labor that manufactured the machinery and extracted the raw materials used to create the item. And the boss' profits do not come from his genius or his capital investment or his mark-up, but from the value created by labor - specifically, surplus-value. Surplus value derives from unpaid wages. The worker is never paid for the value of the product, only for the value of her or his labor time, which is considerably less, and which meanders widely depending upon the historical, cultural and social conditions of a country. Labor-power is miraculous. You get more out of it than you put in. Workers produce a commodity which has more value than what they get in wages to keep them functioning. This differential is surplus value, which is the source of capital. The secret of value, the labor theory of value, was unearthed by the classical economists and by Marx is what the money barons fear and hate. It is the secret that will set the world free. People will learn how to control the supposedly sacred, eternal, and inscrutable method of production and distribution that now controls us. Socialists will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, socialist society will produce abundance for all. That's a fact. The global human family will arrange its standard of living as easily as affluent families do today.

It was Marx who pointed out the truly anarchistic nature of modern industrial capitalism - an irrational, disorganized hodge-podge operation that enormously rewards price-gougers, crooks, banksters, con artists, gamblers, speculators, stock manipulators, and all manner of corruption. It's a crazy and ruthless economy that survives by inflicting anguish on untold billions. Socialists will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, socialist society will produce abundance for all, the global human family.

Proponents of socialism are bombarded with the objection that cooperative and mutually supportive relations among people are a fantasy and that homo sapiens are intrinsically individualistic, competitive, and egotistical. They tell us it's just the way we're genetically programmed. Survival of the fittest and all that. This knee-jerk response from apparently thoughtful folk is nonsense. The overwhelming historical evidence about our true nature amounts to an incredible chronicle of humankind's endless struggle to make life better - for everyone. Early humans lived in clans in which everybody contributed to the group welfare. The norm was the collective ethic. Things changed because different kinds of economic and social organisation create different kinds of people. Today, in a system designed to produce profits for the few at the expense of the many, we compete with each other for money, jobs, education, love, food, a place to live, recognition, self-esteem, everything. The poor rarely understand that they lack the basics because of the way capitalism works. They think they suffer because other cultures, races, religions and countries deprive them of what is rightfully theirs. So they resort to nationalism, patriotism, racism and xenophobia – all substitutes for revolutionary action on a global scale to remove the root cause of all the terrible division and in-fighting. The "we" is replaced by the "me".  For sure everybody loves to win on merit talent. But few like to beat others by cheating and unfair advantage. Nobody wants to degrade and impoverish millions in order to be a success.

All the evils - war, pestilence, poverty, religious bigotry, class and caste divisions are produced by a social machine that runs on exploitation. Capitalism poisons human ‘nature’.  Given the proper social system and access to the technology, we can write our own destinies. A shared and planned socialist world provides the material pre-conditions that impel us to do this.

Why have people not united and rebelled to make change?  Many don’t think it’s possible. Many have no clear image of a goal, of a different kind of social structure. Many are divided by fierce hatreds. Ruling classes have always promoted disunity in order to divide and conquer (through racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and caste distinctions). Many are demoralised, despairing or just plain exhausted from the sheer effort of trying to survive. It takes energy and time for thinking and planning to achieve change. Many are bought off with few crumbs flung to the hungry to keep them pacified with, as John Lennon sang, “Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and T.V., And you think you're so clever and classless and free”. Fellow-workers desperately need to be liberated from their self-imposed chains.

It remarkable that we have actually found the ways and means to overcome all these hurdles and achieved solidarity to engage in struggles against the established order.