Communism failed in the 20th century, but is allowing the super-rich to dictate to the rest of humanity the only alternative system? Perhaps we need to design a socialist system, which also recognizes achievement.
Bill Gates, the second-richest person on Earth, has repeatedly criticized capitalism. Back in 2015 he explained his reasoning was based on a simple ecological calculation: the use of fossil fuels has to be radically reduced if we are to avoid a global catastrophe, and the private sector is too selfish to produce clean and economical alternatives to fossil fuels, which means humanity has to act outside market forces. Gates himself plans to spend $2 billion of his own money on green energy, even though there’s no fortune to be made from it, and he called on fellow billionaires to help make the US fossil-free by 2050 with similar philanthropy.
From an orthodox Leftist position, it is easy to make fun of the naivety of Gates’s proposal. However, the more these reproaches are right, the more they render palpable the misery of the genuine Left: where is THEIR feasible proposal on what we should do?
Because we know words matter in public debates: and even if what Gates is talking about is not “true Socialism,” he does talk about the fateful limitations of capitalism – and, again we can ask, do the self-proclaimed Socialists of the present have a serious vision of what Socialism should be today?
Thus, the paradox of our predicament is that, while the resistance against global capitalism seems to fail to undermine its advance, again and again, its opponents remain strangely out of touch with many trends which clearly signal capitalism’s progressive disintegration.
And it is as if the two tendencies (resistance and self-disintegration) move at different paces and cannot meet so that we get futile protests in parallel with talk of imminent decay, but there seems to be no way to bring the two together in a coordinated act (such as capitalism’s emancipatory overcoming).
Good billionaires?
How did it come to this? While (most of) the Left desperately tries to protect the old workers’ rights against the onslaught of global capitalism, it is almost exclusively the most “progressive” capitalists themselves (from Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg) who talk about post-capitalism – as if the very topic of passage from capitalism, as we know it, to a new post-capitalist order is appropriated by capitalism itself.
As a consequence, a new group of “organic intellectuals” is thus emerging: and they exemplify the privatization of our commons. The figure of Elon Musk is emblematic here, and he belongs to the same class as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and others: all ‘socially conscious’ billionaires. And they represent global capital at its most seductive and “progressive,” in short, at its most dangerous. But can then these ultra-rich save us?
The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk would not be Sloterdijk if he did not draw this provocative conclusion: previously, we thought that only the (united) poor could save the world, but the twentieth century has shown the catastrophic consequences of this attitude and the destructive violence which is engendered by universalized resentment.
Now, in the twenty-first century, we should finally have the courage to accept that only the rich can save the world, and we can argue that exceptionally creative individuals, who give generously, like Bill Gates and George Soros, have done more for the struggles for political freedom and against disease than has any state intervention.
Sloterdijk’s diagnosis should not be confused with the usual conservative-liberal rant against the so-called “resentment Left.” Because the central idea that sustains this rant is that we have had enough of the “welfare tyranny” that abounds in our “democratic despotism”; as in the Middle Ages, personal pride is today the greatest sin, and our fundamental right is more and more simply the “right to dependence.”
Alternative approach
“Welfare is today a drug on which more and more people depend. A good human idea turned into a kind of opium for the people,” as Norbert Bolz, another German thinker, explained.
But what makes Sloterdijk different is that he understands his proposal as a strategy to secure the survival of modern Europe’s greatest economic-political achievement, the social democratic Welfare State. According to Sloterdijk, our reality — in Europe, at least — is “objective” social democracy as opposed to “subjective” social democracy. And to keep it alive, we should create a “new semantic,” a new space of hegemonic ideas in which the culture of pride, and the recognition of the achievers (not only fiscal but also moral), will have its proper place.
But can this work? I don’t think so. Let’s return to Bill Gates, he correctly locates the ultimate cause of our (ecological) problems in capitalism, and then, instead of proposing changes to the system itself, he appeals to the common sense of individual capitalists.
Yet, wouldn’t it be much more appropriate to try to create a non-capitalist system, which recognizes achievers? Are these two desires really irreconcilable?
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/412495-zizek-gates-capitalism-planet-socialism/
NOPE!
I’ll ask each of you to take a step back and ask yourself: “Do I really believe that the world is in need of saving?” This is the Hegelian Dialectic at work before our eyes. The bogeyman first presented at the beginning of this piece was presented by ‘ol Billy Gates, who criticized capitalism on the basis of some “simple ecological calculation” that the world was going to end up in some sort of catastrophe because of depletion of fossil fuels. Where is this calculation, and when can I evaluate the variables in it to ascertain if Billy has got his numbers/formulas correct? If it is such a simple calculation, then it ought to be simple enough for anyone with an 8th grade education to comprehend (we’ll leave out the common core BS for this matter). I think it’s great ‘ol Billy wants to spend his FRN’s on renewable energy, assuming he really is doing it, and is encouraging others who value his opinion to follow in his steps. What I object to here, besides the assumption regarding global catastrophe due to lack of energy is that for one, capitalism is presented as the counter to socialism. It is not. A better point to be made as the alternative to both capitalism and socialism(communism) would be a merit-based free market economy free from the abuses of capitalism and the resource drain of comminism. You will rarely hear any presentation of capitalism vs. socialism(communism) that offers anything except a planned conflict offered for our participation in its endless struggle for hearts and minds. It is really no different than the “Republican bad, Democrat good” farce we are subjected to in order to keep us engaged in the false hope there will ever be another outcome except further deadlock and distraction from what really matters in life.
The only thing that truly needs saving is the minds, bodies and souls of those who are in the eternal slavery of bondage to sin. That salvation has already been wrought on our behalf by Jesus Christ; and when accepted as the free gift it is offered as, settles the real issue at hand. This Earth is a temporary vessel in which the great cosmic play is being unfolded. It will not continue in this form forever, but will be made anew by The Creator when the present paradigm has fulfilled its purpose. Those who, like Billy Gates, are looking for some salvation for their world system and their “Mother Earth Gaia” will find their saviors in the form of the False Prophet and The Beast (The Antichrist) and their “New World Order”. Where do you think this is all going? The deck is stacked, and the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place one by one.
” 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Revelation 21: 1-8
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4oPLNtP6_ec2ac_ZsujgtcjoPNBwVFET
Bill Gates stays in $80,000 dollar a night hotels, what the hell does this guy care about anything except his impatient pacing of his 300 ft hallways waiting for the live forever pill?
Well, so much for everything I just wrote down. My submission was “marked as spam” and not posted. Henry, if you have access to the lost posting, I would appreciate its retrieval from the spam folder, if possible. If not, then I suppose it was just for God and myself.
Found it. Must have been one of those good folks over in TelAviv, helping us run the site. What would we do without them? 🙂
Success! Thank you, Henry & Laura.
What would we do without the Oy Boys? Thrive and succeed in our free lives.
Darzak, that comment of yours was awesome. Simply awesome, and I could not have written it any better myself. Thanks! I could write a screed about Gates, Bezos and the rest of the hypocrite psychos, but you said it all, Darzak.
And maybe you are under attack, Henry…it took me several tries to post this comment.
Sunspots/Solar flares. 🙄