...To
provide us with the chance for meaningful change, we need to become
more than a revised version of “reform” minded liberals.
The
basic starting problem with being “reform” minded in the first
place is that it assumes a residual faith in the current economic
operating model now in place. And in that faith is an inherent
understanding that you will keep buying into the basic foundations
that support it. Which is why it was hardly surprising that Clinton,
even as she proclaimed in a campaign speech, before she lost, that she would do away
with money in politics, was a major recipient of big money donations.
The Clinton's have always, after all, been their own kind of pro
business (trying to bring forth the “Third Way,” and all). In
this, at the core, is the belief that, thought obviously flawed,
Capitalism, with the right kinds of reform legislation in place, can
be managed in both a fiscally sound, as well as socially equitable,
way.
The
problem is folks, nothing could be further from the truth.
The only
way for a new opposition to make a strong challenge for change is to
offer a form of Progressive Realism that makes sense both
technologically, socially, and in practical terms within Democratic
norms. And to do that we must first realize that Capitalism is in
fact quite obsolete.
It truly
can't take us where we need to go. Our sensibilities have changed.
The environments now possible to live and work in have changed. A
completely new perspective on how we go about doing the
production,distribution, and management, of needs, where individual
liberty and collective responsibility, are in balance, must be found, and utilized to come up with something fundamentally new.
And
then, having found that, and starting on the ongoing work of better
defining it, we set out to organize working people like it has never
been done before. Organizing working people not by particular
industry, but by the mere fact of being a wage earner. Organization
that must work the full span of commercial life. Organization that
bases itself on the proposition that Capitalism has had its day (for a host of very real reasons) and
it is way past time to replace it. And the only way to do that is to
be able to put very large chunks of the entire economy on strike.
If we
can do that. If we can show the money people that the days of their
counters are numbered, I can assure you that the powers that be will
have to stop and listen to us. They'll have to stop and realize that
they are either going to be part of the solution, or just unavoidable
collateral damage (though definitely in a non violent sense).
Obviously I think I have outlined a place to start from here. I've put a lot of years into trying to come up with the reasons that support my basic contention (obsolescence), as well as the why's my alternative would fit the requirement. What I ask of you all now is to begin looking into this yourselves. Ask questions. Find the flaws(I don't have all of the questions yet so I can assure you that I don't have anywhere even near all of the answers to what I'm missing in my alternative. Which is no more than to say that no one mind is going to be able to figure out the details in any solution, much less mine). Maybe come up with a better alternative.
The major point here is that it simply cannot be based on Capitalism anymore. And that is absolutely where we need to start from.
BY JEDEDIAH PURDY
February 1, 2017
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALEX NABAUM
Check out my introduction outline
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