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Marxists must necessarily be critical of capitalism; but no one can subsist on criticism alone. We must also put forth a set of concrete proposals to improve the lives of the working class, such as guaranteed housing, healthcare, education, food, etc. 1/x
Since these proposals may not be that different than those offered by other ideological groups, we must also put forth a utopian vision of what we see as the grand, ultimate goal for society. (This is not different from what very different ideologies do, by the way)
Marxism can never be entirely utopian, because then it would lose the focus on the concrete steps that need to be taken here and now, but we have to keep in mind that the grand vision both separates one ideology from another, and also provides inspiration
Revolutionaries need inspiration, just like everyone does. Marxism, in that sense, is both art and science
It's very instructive how capitalism and bourgeois liberal politics respond to the very reasonable demands of policies like universal healthcare, housing, guaranteed employment, a minimum income, etc, which is always by saying these things are unrealistic and unaffordable
It is a huge mistake to engage on this terrain, as many of the Democratic primary challengers did. All this does is muddy the waters and introduce confusion. (And I'm saying this as a professional economist and numbers analyst)
We all know, intuitively, that we can afford to guarantee people a decent life. To act like the most reasonable, realistic, even prosaic goals of communists are utterly pie-in-the-sky fantasies really shows the hand of the bourgeois politicians -- and this is mostly Democrats,
who agree that these policies are desirable. Republicans tend to say these policies are akin to slavery.
The attempt is to shift the conversation back to funding, maintaining and defending the current pro-capitalist state, and focusing on incremental reforms
The attempt is to shift the conversation back to funding, maintaining and defending the current pro-capitalist state, and focusing on incremental reforms
One thing that should be utterly clear to everyone at this point: incremental reforms will never deliver any of these things. Not health care, not a decent income, not universal housing. History shows that none of these things were EVER achieved through incremental reforms
We also need to recognize that ideology is a fluid process, and people learn and grow. We must be careful about labeling people, which tends to slow and freeze this process.
