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Bakunin's Predictions
Although the Democratic Socialists of America is an organization with a goal to unite a broad swath of socialist ideologies together, within its very name and praxis, it can be seen to favor a more citizen operated form of socialism. Given the constraint of democratic socialism one can imagine that some combination of citizen control and government centralization would fulfill this eponym. However, this essay will inspect the work of anarcho-communist Mikhail Bakunin who took Marx’s work very seriously and foresaw many of the struggles of the coming century.
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Ideology and Alienation: An Introduction
To begin critiquing capitalism and imagining a future beyond it, it is necessary to develop a shared conceptual vocabulary. While one is right to be skeptical of complicated and jargon-laden theory, the ability to envision a better future requires a sophisticated diagnosis of the past and the present. One must use whatever tools available to develop pragmatic strategies guided by an unyielding vision of a better future. To this end, two Marxist conceptual tools will aid in the task of building something beyond capitalism: ideology and alienation.
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Reviving the Working Class Intellectual Tradition in Tumultuous Times
The rise of market fundamentalism as an ideology to promote the neoliberal agenda has reached worrying levels and it is looking to be consolidated with the current administration. As a result, the heart of social democratic thinking—the idea that the promise of each human being can only be developed in a society driven by principles of liberty, equality, solidarity and cooperation—has been displaced by vicious and erroneous principles of individualism, competition, deregulation, and privatization.
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