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While that text describes a lot of well documented and widely acknowledged problematic mechanisms, such as the positive feedback loop of wealth, political influence/lobbying through wealth, social inequality as the breeding ground of extremism and using minorities as scape goats, the strict determinism presented here ("inevitably"), as well as in other (neo-) marxist theories is untenable both from a historical and political science perspective.
It fails to acknowledge the existence of democratic resilience, degrading the state to a mere puppet of the rich, ignoring existence and effectiveness of unions, civil society, independent courts and welfare state. Historically, both the New Deal and the social market economy emerging post-war show how capitalist societies reacted to inequality without drifting into fascism.
Also, historical fascism has not been thought up and installed by the capitalists to divide the working class, but was an authentic mass movement driven by widespread nationalism, traumata of WW1, cultural fears and militant anti-marxism. Sure, the industrialists happily collaborated with the fascists to subdue the left, but eventually, the fascist states completely subdued the economy to its own (war) goals. The state controlled the capital and not the other way round.
Furthermore, painting the 'ruling class' as a monolith, acting as a secret homogenous group in dark back rooms where they orchestrate their oppression of minorities, is a bit too simple. It fails to acknowledge the diverging interests and rivalries within this diverse group.
Similarly, the 'working class' is painted as dumb and easily manipulable sheep which are readily distracted from their own interest by artificially created hatred towards minorities. That completely rids them of their own agency, ignoring their subjective rootedness in cultural, religious or even nationalistic beliefs.
I never understood the need for this fundamentalist determinism. Who can reliably and honestly use words such as "inevitable" when describing something as complex as societies? Instead, it will put you in a corner where it is becoming increasingly harder to explain why the deterministic path you described before did not come to be. If, irrespective of the inputs, the output shall always be the same and known, something is not right..
The fact is that we either need to abolish capitalism or we will constantly be fighting against the tide of fascism. You can take issue with my points all you want. If money can be exchanged for goods and services, then democracy is for sale. Reforms can, and have been, gutted. Unions can be bought. Wake the fuck up and stop coping.
There is always a constant battle to defend societies against its enemies. That fact is not limited to capitalism, as can be seen in the extensive surveillance in socialist countries. Even fascism itself felt so insecure that they massively surveilled and suppressed their own population. How so, if fascism really is the deterministic end point?
There is no stillstand or equilibrium in societies and I severely doubt there'll ever be.
@Quittenbrot @bearboiblake
How would you define equilibrium in this context anyway?
I think they're making the point that societies always change, which I would agree with. My argument isn't that there is a process from capitalism to fascism and then that's the endpoint, there is obviously no endpoint to society, it'll always change and grow -- after all, societies are living things. But I strongly believe that there is a path towards a truly free and equitable society - a utopia, if you want - and that path necessitates the end of capitalism.
The so-called socialist countries still have capitalist economies. And yes, you're right, that a truly socialist would indeed need to defend itself against its enemies, but under a capitalist system, the system itself inevitably trends towards fascism for the reasons I outlined in great detail in my comment.
Fascism is inherently a very fragile and unstable system -- that's why the fascist need for control and authoritarianism is so urgent, because the ideology is so unnatural. So, yes, fascism does indeed inevitably collapse, because it's fundamentally a suicide cult. but if that collapse leads back to capitalism with reforms, then it'll just cycle back towards fascism again.
If you're talking about China, yea. But what about the USSR and it's satellite states?
My remarks to these I stated in my initial reply.
Not only capitalists, to be honest. What started as a revolution in the name of the working class with the Bolsheviks soon 'degraded' into an authoritarian ruling system with a strong party elite and - again - exploited workers. As said: I've yet to find a society that is completely stable and has no driving forces pushing it towards tyranny of some form.
@Quittenbrot @bearboiblake
This is because of the nature of "Leadership": It is impossible to become a "Leader" of a major nation (/corp/institution) with any tangible power without having done strings of deals (i.e. compromises, i.e. selling out popular interests for private/personal ones, i.e. corruption).
The most successful "Leaders" are simply the most convincing liars.
I agree.
But wouldn't you agree that this fundamental dilemma of power inviting abuse has been proven by humanity to be irrespective of the label of the respective societal system?
@Quittenbrot
Yes, they are irrespective of labels or systems or ideologies. There is a small % of humanity that are self-righteous, self-interested, double-dealing control freaks. The worst amongst them will always end up competing for power. The rest of us are essentially credulous, malleable serfs.
I absolutely would agree with that, and that is why I advocate for anarchism, which is the one and only ideology which actually accounts for that fact.
There's no doubt that the USSR was extremely authoritarian, for sure. I'd say that was due to a variety of complex reasons, but foremost among them would be that there wasn't a social revolution, there was a military revolution which replaced the existing ruling class with a different ruling class, rather than actually eliminating the ruling class altogether. The levers of power were maintained, and abused for personal gain, until capitalism was restored - and now we have the capitalist Russian Federation. The abolition of capitalism isn't a magic bullet, and I'm not arguing that it is - but that does not change the fact that capitalism does inevitably lead towards fascism.
Well, I'd be glad to introduce you to anarchism. For what it's worth, too, I'd say that Cuba demonstrates a pretty good model of a socialist society, despite the constant US terrorist attacks and interventions/blockades -- quality of life, literacy rates, health care, etc. have all hugely improved, they have cures for lung cancer and Alzheimers in Cuba that we don't even have in the West. Again, it's not perfect, and there are no good states, but out of all of them, I'd say Cuba probably comes the closest.
Again, in my initial response I pointed out why I have problems with this 'inevitable' and think it is a dogmatic statement.
Also, I stumble across comparing the flawed capitalism that actually exists with an idealised theoretical utopia of socialism/anarchism. Especially, since the socialism that did actually exist, was not only also flawed but eventually failed. Let's be honest here. We cannot credibly say the flaws of the one system being actually applied are 'signs of its inherent true nature', while the other simply gets relabeled in a no-true-scotsman fashion. When a theoretical model collides with realities, the inherent flaws will emerge.
As did with the USSR. It was indeed a social revolution, nationalisation and expropriation of large landowners did take place. Only, transferring this then into the hands of the state under central planning made it necessary to create a huge state apparatus. Hence, also a new elite was created.
Let me change gears for a moment: Do you support capitalism? If so, why?
If by 'leading to water' you mean repeating a statement over and over again instead of addressing any critical comments on your argument, that's certainly the case.
But if you're just here to state and not to debate, then that's completely fine with me. Have a great day, too!