Oppressive de-sublimation, its adherents and its potential for change

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OpEds—

BY PETER PAVIMENTOV, Senior Editor

Large scale protests in the shadow of power buildings are easily contained as all governing classes have learned to control the impact of such demonstrations by using stealth, violence and propaganda.  So perhaps the road is to learn the guerilla tactics from the overlords, like in the unfortunate occupied territories in near Asia, while trying to reduce damage to oneself and others.

Members of the White Rose, Munich 1942. From left: Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst.

Though the excellent article by David Harvey on organizing a transition to a non-capitalist type of society contains seeds for a reversal of the capitalist mode, I personally feel that one emerging major new movement as an ideology to oppose capitalism is not what is needed. The world is so fragmented that capitalism in fact forms (and much more so than a re-invented communism) the significant unifying ideology for emerging economies.

Forming, as Harvey writes, a support system for the surplus capital that Western elites will invest abroad for extracting more surplus value from indigenous workers and where satraps will keep control for them. In an obscene way all workers from all countries are consequentially united in late capitalism, they all are reduced to become proletarians, or worse, to become beggars. And because it was used as a political move against China, the Obama administration has proven once again to be the big bully during the Copenhagen climate change conference, reinforcing the material destruction wrought by humanity at large. (See our articles on this topic, including Naomi Klein’s For Obama, no opportunity too big to blow).

Because of the concentration of capital and the fragility of modern data technologies, it appears to me that many small scattered revolts of divergent ideologies would be more effective as a force against capitalist domination which is so universally and dangerously supported by the managerial classes of society. The linkage between surplus capital and exploitation to produce more surplus value can be broken—or at least seriously disrupted— even by small uprisings.  As for the extensive speculations by surplus capital funds to generate more capital through the ease of electronic linkage (as the boys from Wall Street have demonstrated more often than we would like) the fate of hackers is cleverly publicized as an antidote for those who might try this route, but so far no brilliant and courageous African or Asian hacker has emerged.

It is clear by now that in the US, more than anywhere else you can buy almost anything and anybody, because money speaks far louder than words. This deafening roar of surplus funds in the hands of the ever fewer (comparatively to a population of three hundred million) drowns out any protests from the exploited. That is also why it appears logical and more productive —from the perspective of those sworn to disrupt the system—that acts of hidden sabotage should eventually crop up with regularity, as revolutionists will inevitably copy the common criminals who have practically pioneered the field. Complex societies are duly worried about this as, after all, it is very easy to bring our intricate system of transport and communication to a halt.

Large scale protests in the shadow of power buildings are easily contained as all governing classes have learned to control the impact of such demonstrations by using stealth, violence and propaganda.  So perhaps the road is to learn the guerilla tactics from the overlords, like in the unfortunate occupied territories in near Asia, while trying to reduce damage to oneself and others.

That is far from easy, nor is accepting the concept of small and isolated resistances all-over, chiseling away at the hard fully integrated surface of modern dominance.  These acts may cause small cracks that will ultimately bring the bondage down.

This demolition is not possible within a day and that is why grand schemes for rebellion may remain ineffectual and in fact perhaps provoke and strengthen the methods of oppression. The irrationality of the system is hard to comprehend for anyone living within it because it became a completely self-perpetuating sine qua non dogma. Though Harvey assumes that all functional change is only possible within seven co-dependent spheres, which is absolutely true, it can only be applied after a series of rebellions are starting to take place. It necessitates that a barren mental ground is made fertile again by fresh thought unrelated to what dominates at present, as it is impossible to proceed towards liberation within the crippling mental limits imposed by the capitalist system.  We are all poisoned by it to a greater or lesser extent–from the foods we eat to the air we breath and the thoughts we formulate.

Class-rooted organizations and self-aggrandizing leadership tie us down; they are what brought us to the present bankrupt societal system. What makes guerilla action important, also as a weapon against the hierarchical military, is exactly its refusal to be categorized. It is free from all collateral liberal contamination, too often seen in progressive methods and organizations. The decision for or against cooperation tolerates divergent opinions and few leaders have ever brought deep harmony amongst the led, except by coercion.

The movements that Harvey and Schell discuss on Znet are all within a capitalist setting, whether they are in the West, in Africa or Asia, and with many exceptions still perform either for a temporary or cosmetic change, not a permanent and radical one. Indeed the relief of the most injurious laws here such as the one preventing abortions are a result of such large movements, but not a minute passes without it is being gnawed at, as we just saw with the [Sen. Ben] Nelson amendment to a rotten senatorial health care bill which is meant at least to partially cripple it.

Other examples are easily found. For example, the “equal rights bills” which leave the basic discriminations in place. In this context, as in similar ones derived from the same structural boundaries imposed by the system’s needs, only the complete shattering of the capitalist structure itself will prevent a continual readjustment of the past to suit the establishment and placate a trusting public.

It is far too late to go on accommodating the managerial classes who profit by and perpetuate the status quo via the selection of incremental solutions (and often not even that) to the excesses of capitalism. These “solutions” only extend and prolong the suffering of the masses and now of living nature itself.  The oppressive de-sublimation must be forced to end by showing that capitalism is not the monolithic monster it pretends to be, but quite a fragile, vulnerable edifice.  But it is fear that holds people in thrall to what is, and it is fear that prevents them from realizing how very redundant and circular capitalist thought has become. Still, the more repression is absorbed, the more equivalent internal resistance may be built up. That must be recognized and the people encouraged to invent successful resistance methods. The pure revolutionary song Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten? (Thoughts are free, who can guess what they are?) must be revived (it was sung by the young White Rose resistance fighters in Germany in 1942). In fact the White Rose has a lot to teach us in our day.