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Marx was wrong! Revolution will never happen in the U.S.? Yea Right!!!
I can’t count the number of times I have heard the argument from my fellow colleagues in social science that Karl Marx’s idea that eventually the working class will revolt in all capitalist societies is flawed. Marxian Theory in social science argues that capital machinery and mass production that is developed in capitalist societies becomes a tool of the bourgeoisie or the ruling class of owners to destroy the workers, regardless of age, class, or gender through exploitation. It further argues that upon the uniting of consciousness at a point of “us” versus “them,” the working class proletariat will rise up and no longer except the exploitation and move to overthrow the ruling class. This is what happened in the French Revolution on a grand scale and on a much smaller scale in the U.S. when the resistance movement refused to return shiploads of taxed tea to Britain and threw it into the Boston Harbor in 1773.
These non-believers have stated their case based on the notion that Marx did not account for the growth of the middle class, which serves as a buffer for the lower working classes because they see the limited progress of these people and are duped into believing that it is possible to move from the lower classes into the higher ownership classes. It is this conciliation that scientist have cited as too strong a deterrent for revolution to occur in the U.S. capitalist system.
Cut to today and the Occupy Movement that is spreading like wild fire all over the country. This movement at its core is clearly based on what Marx argued. It is focused on attacking the policies and behavior of our national and local government that supports the growing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few people in the U.S. through exploitive policies. This movement offers a look at the new consciousness of the American people that undoubtedly sees the economic collapse occurring in the U.S. as a result of “them” trying to exploit all prosperity away from “us.”
So how can this movement continue to grow and will it or will it just be squelched by those attempting to maintain control? In my opinion, any movement in the U.S. that has international support as this movement is gaining will not be stopped. As of today, it is reported that thousands of people around the world are rallying against corporate power and wealth concentration in Europe, Asia, Australia, and elsewhere. So the world is finally seeing that there is a difference in what they are told by “the powers that be” is American interests from what the citizens of the U.S. see as their true interests and this is causing a global “us” consciousness to form. So maybe what Marx didn’t count on was that mechanism of global support.
What I think those disbelievers have not considered is the power of occupation. When I say occupy I don’t mean literal occupation of a space, although that is a major part of what is going on around the world at the moment. I mean that there is power in helping people to reoccupy the spaces in their minds that have been hijacked by what Marx terms “the opium of the masses” and “false consciousness,” a concept that others credit him. Marx believed that institutional processes mislead and betray the true nature of relations between the classes and is a tool of ideological control that is disguised from those being exploited. He also believed that institutions were tools for the creation of illusions that are seen as reality by the people that must be uncovered in order for true reality and “us” consciousness to surface.
So if this movement is to survive and be successful at re-occupying or taking back society from the corporate power and the influence of those who hold the highest concentration of wealth, it must surely focus on changing institutional support for this injustice but it must also focus heavily on waking people from their false consciousness and shaking them out of the opium dream, in which they exist. The dream that tells them money is power, their sole purpose for life is to feed and support the capitalist machine, that they have nothing if they don’t have monetary wealth, and that their neighbor is their enemy.
This movement will be successful if its transmitters take this message of re-occupying minds everywhere to every space they occupy collectively or individually in the coming days, weeks, and months. The movement must not sit idle in public spaces but must actively take off into the streets because minds need to be freed at home, on the bus stop, at work, in school, at the coffee shop, at the markets, at the malls, and at every other venue Occupy supporters can think of but remember what flight attendants always tell you before takeoff. It applies here as well. One must first occupy their own mind with the consciousness of freedom before they can help others.
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Very well thought out. I think ur right the main problem with the poor uprising to challange the rich leaders is that there is a HUGE middle class that simpathizes but doesn't empathize with the poor. In short the middle class acts, perhaps unintentionally; as a muddled barrier betwix the poor and the rich. This makes it even harder for the poor to succeed. What to do…….?