The two hundred … and the five thousand

This should be an awfully good time to look back and take stock. The terminology and concept of ‘socialism’ arose during the 1820s, now two hundred years ago. In the wake of the French Revolution, the advocates of equality, after some decades of contemplation, came to the conclusion that the productive assets of society must be owned collectively if an egalitarian ethos is to prevail. They set out to change the system.

Socialism has been the most organized and most theorized movement for equality and justice in history. And yet it has not succeeded. It has been instrumental in winning welfare-statist reforms like Social Security and unemployment insurance, but it has failed to effectuate system change and has hardly dented wealth/power elitism.

After two hundred years. “No Justice, No Peace” goes the chant. Generation after generation after generation. Disappointment after disappointment: Marx, Engels, Kautsky, De Leon, Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky, Jaurès, the Webbs, Goldman, Debs, Gramsci, Thomas, Nkrumah, Harrington, Corbyn, Sanders.

Movement after movement (whatever happened to Occupy?). The Peace and Freedom Party, Socialist Workers Party, Citizens Party, Labor Party, New Party, Justice Party, Working Families Party. Now we have a new one … https://PeoplesParty.org … with Cornel West getting all hopeful about it.

Cornel, step back. Instead of sowing new delusions, think more deeply. Take a longer view. Consider why the socialist movement failed. Why shouting “Justice!” out in the streets has not been very effective.

There has been no justice since the rise of the state-wealth-development complex five thousand years ago. The latter is and has always been characterized by power elitism. No justice anywhere it has touched … for five thousand years.

It arose in localized pockets. But it was an aggressive force (that being part of the problem). Sumer, Egypt, Rome, etc. It eventually conquered all. It became ubiquitous after the globalization of developmentalist civilization following the opening to the New World.

Five thousand years. No counterforce has done more than make some dents in the edifice.

It’s time for a realization already: The edifice cannot and will not be socialized or horizontalized or democratized.

Think hard about the two hundred and the five thousand. Conclude that it’s time for a new perspective, a different approach, a revision of praxis. The edifice can’t be smashed or overthrown. But it can be undermined. It can be circumvented. It can be abandoned.

It’s toxic and insane. To the extent that you try to engage, it will make you frustrated, dispirited, angry. Don’t let it. Don’t focus so much on the myriad injustices. Positively, mindfully, enthusiastically build alternatives.

A new kind of movement. The greening of society. I think history will date it from the 1960s (“we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden”). It could establish a foundation for new human lifeways within a couple of hundred years. Perhaps we could get ourselves back to the garden within two or three millennia. Maybe it will take five. We have a long way to go.