To see the struggle for socialism as a long process of global transformation since the mid-nineteenth century is also somehow comforting on a psychological level for an old man. The struggle and suffering of millions of communists and socialists over the past two hundred years have not been in vain, but are contributions to this long process of creating a better world. To be part of this process—a tiny cog in the machinery of transformation—and to give it a little push in the right direction seems to be “the meaning of life.” This meaning is not founded in some religion or a belief in an afterlife, but in historical materialism and the purpose of life before death: to hand over a world that is more equal and in balance with nature to future generations.
The problem for the next generation, however, is that we are running out of time. Our task—as the subjective force of change—is to work toward a transformation of the system into a more democratic and equal world order, one in balance with nature, within the next several decades.