I am not a "realist". I never liked the word "idealist" either, by saying you are an idealist, you are saying your hopes are but pipe dreams never to be realized.
In May 1968, in Paris, there was a graffitti in the walls of La Sorbonne university, it said "Be realists: Ask for what's impossible". However, I must confess right now I feel rather pessimistic in front of the whole panorama. Our system, from base, is flawed. When I mean "from base" I mean I highly doubt voting the other party is going to solve anything. "You don't like Bush, well, you have the INCREDIBLE FREEDOM of voting another right winged party". No, thanks. In modern culture, democracy fails, because it is not compatible with the people. In a culture of demagogy and obedience, democracy becomes another form of dictatorship: It is not a game where you have a diversity of opinions to choose from, but a gigantic manipulation and two dominating parties. It is all a whole advertisment, it is just like when we are persuaded on TV to buy this or that soda drink. For democracy to really work, it is necessary for the people to be capable of making it work, yet this is not possible under, for example, the modern educational system, or the modern production system, that creates alienation and thus creates easily dominated people.
So yeah, what is the solution? As you said, some think it is communism. Is it? Well, I like it, but I can't say I don't see flaws in it. The final objective of communism is the emancipation of man, the realization of the community and the individual and, above all, the end of the State as we know it. Some say it's anarchy. I like that too. It's objective is the emancipation of man, the realization of the community and the individual and, above all, the end of the State as we know it. With different means from the ones communism uses, but the objective is fairly similar, with some few differences. But the problem is how to get there, because before any radical change can be done towards a new system, be it communism, anarchy, Plato's republic, Thomas More's Utopia or whatever far away arcadia, first a radical change must be made in the people. But capitalism is a temptation, because for some people, it creates wealth, and wealth many times can be considered a way for low phisically hedonistic pleasure. It is also a way to inflate the ego, to feel superior, to have some ass-lickers around you. It also means power, ambition.
We are in the land of the plenty, a plenitude that will some day destroy us. Most people strive towards this wealth as their final objective in life. That is not my case: I come from a wealthy family. I have been educated in one of the greatest elitist private schools in the country. I have seen la creme de la creme of the burgeoise. And you want to know something? It's not worth a trout. The life of the high and middle-high classes is not happy, it is completly empty and hypocrital. So yeah, I don't strive for great fortresses and fortunes, rivers to El Dorado, fountains of eternal youth, alchemy to make virtue out of vice or the hand of king Midas. Because it is hollow. HAve you seen Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane"? The movie opens in the great mansion of Xanadu, and focuses an old man in a bed, holding in his hands a crystal ball with a toy house inside it and the whole snow thing. He dies and drops the ball. His lasts words are "Rosebud". If you have seen the movie, you will understand that scene may be probably the death scene of every millionare in the western world. Actually, that scene may just explain life itself. If not, watch it. I won't say what "Rosebud" means.
So yes, I can say that from my point of view the ideal of capitalism is but a fake mirrage of L'Age d'Or. You can be poor, you will feel forced to work to be wealthy. If you are rich, you will feel all this work has lead to emptyness. It's a loosing game, no matter the team. It is not a society created for human beings, it is dehumanized. Yet, "the world is turning Disney, and there's nothing you can do".
As the song by The Beautiful South says: "The world won't end in darkness/ it will end in family fun/ with Coca-Cola clouds/ behind a Big Mac sun!". And I think that right now, that prediction seems rather probable. Is there a posibility of change? It all depends on the people, yet it seems difficult. In the 60s, there was a cultural revolution. Now the children of May 1968 work in the advertisment campaigns of multinationals. Do you think we can go from advertisments and fictions of emptiness back into 1968? That May is long gone, Saint Denis is long gone, long gone is Jean Paul Sartre, long gone is that Paris. So in the end, it all resides in that Paris, the only time and place where a ray of hope had been possible. It just needs to come back. It may. Bush winning the next elections may sound threatening, because he acts like a fascist, however, it may be the exclamation mark to lead to an awakening. More wars, more lies, more manipulation and more dogmatism may just be the thing you need for a change. Then again, the most terrible panorama is the possibility that will not happen, but we may end up in some new Middle Ages, with the voice of the TV anthennas as substitutes for God. I've seen the future, brother: It is murder.
Yet, as Leonard Cohen says:
For the millions in a prison,
That wealth has set apart –
For the Christ who has not risen,
From the caverns of the heart –
For the innermost decision,
That we cannot but obey -
For what’s left of our religion,
I lift my voice and pray:
May the lights in The Land of Plenty
Shine on the truth some day.
Woah, what a long rant.
Originally Posted by TasteyPies
