I don't think it's coming naturally. I think we're going to have to start pushing our culture towards socialism asap. We should be a mixed economy by now IMO.

I can't tell them that without time travel yo.

don't worry.. I'm sure the inevitability of progress will sort that out for you
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I think marx actually believed that the conditions of capitalism would inevitably lead to the class consciousness which would result in the proles seizing the means of production.... Isn't that his whole spiel on the hegelian dialectic and history... Tbh I never could force myself to learn enough about philosophy to understand Hegel.

Sour grapes much?

There will never be a true class conscious "awakening" because the vast majority of people can't imagine a future that isn't capitalist. The whole "end of history" spiel. Hegel touches upon it and Fisher does pretty well with the subject too.

I distinctly remember calling you a Strawmanning Nutria last year. That was great. :love:

to me the marxist idea that the conditions of capitalism will inevitably lead to class consciousness which leads to revolution is equally naive as assuming technology will free us from inequality

It's like yes obviously without some sort of catastrophe technological progress will probably continue but I see no indication that it is going to flatten the social hierarchy. If anything it is just as likely to be weaponized to magnify said class distinctions.

And all of that is of course ignoring the many possible catastrophes which can cause the system to crumble and society to regress instead of continuing to progress... Ie why I find the idea of the inevitability of progress so cute. It's like what's that old saying by Isaac newton? What goes up will just continue to go up forever and nothing can bring it back down again. That's the saying, isn't it??

It's unclear to me how the worker co-ops that are being championed by the socialist left won't devolve into trade guilds as you have in euro nations that act like a cabal. I'm from a pro-union state and if you want to get into the, say, sprinkler fitters union you basically need to know a guy.

I assume we're supposed to like this more because they work with their hands rather than go to B school and own yachts, but neither is going to produce a healthy economy.

All the grand ideas I hear from other people don't seem to be able to supersede what a 21st Century New Deal set of policies would lead to. I.e. The New Deal without the horribly racial and segregationist policies we had the last time.

What the **** are you talking about with cabals? Are you describing bad things? I mean you just threw around "cabal" like it was supposed to describe a central American Republic we'd overthrown with fascist death squads but didn't even bother with specifics.

the manifesto was written on the eve of impending revolution in Europe. Those revolutions were just unsuccessful. It seems pretty plausible to me that maybe Marx was more optimistic about the revolutionary prophesy early on and maybe became a bit more reserved and realistic later in life after life forced him to swallow some bitter truths.

Either way.. What contradictions are you referring to specifically?