At the time when it was possible and necessary to resist liquid capital through not allowing it to shuffle large masses of desperate scabs around to break Labor, the EU did the opposite. It bent over backwards to help liquid capital destroy Labor. And now people can’t forgive it for doing that and don’t trust it.
Today, only global measures can address globally generated problems. But the EU has lost people’s trust that it will do anything but assist liquid capital in its exploitation schemes. Can anybody really blame people for losing trust after being so massively betrayed? This is why I can’t blame the British people for Brexit.
I believe this was one of the things foreseen by Marx — the automation. Just as a point of reference, I now want to find out what he thought the follow-on would be (beyond suggesting you could have revolution before going through full on bourgeois industrial stage). I must study.
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Marx envisioned the dictatorship of proletariat because he could never imagine a stage where proletariat would not be needed. Capitalism was supposed to collapse under the weight of its contradictions. What he didn’t know (and nobody did) is that capitalism had an enormous capacity to adapt and mold itself around any challenge.
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(…but I think there are smaller points in M. & Marxian analysis, viz. he did see that workers would be less needed as automation advanced. I’m going to check into this)
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The idea was that automation would allow everybody to work less and dedicate the rest of their time to personal fulfillment and intellectual growth. We are now seeing just how fulfilling this way of life looks in West Virginia, for example. 😦
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Well, that is what Aldous Huxley thought it would do, but as I remember Marx thought it would mean increasing immiseration. This is why I want to look these things up and reread.
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\ as I remember Marx thought it would mean increasing immiseration. This is why I want to look these things up and reread.
If you do, I would love to read what you discover.
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