Kremlin in the boys' room/Marxist-market dialectic

Marxist-Market Dialectics:

Marxism is the ideology of Goliath. Appealing to the emotions of ordinary people—workers, peasants, minorities, etc.—it offers them nothing but a role as a mere unit in the class struggle, which God knows when will end and who the hell knows how it will turn out. The consistent development and Pyrrhic victories of Marxists across the globe have repeatedly culminated in infighting among those who promised freedom from hierarchies—only to fight for a place in new hierarchies. Because time and again, it turns out that whether you fight capitalism or not, Homo sapiens seeks to maximize gains (which kinda hints that capitalism isn’t the real issue). This, in turn, has led leftists—since the days of Robert Owen (long before Marx, mind you)—to repeatedly conclude that the problem lies in the "imperfection of human material," eventually arriving at the idea that the entire human race must be remade. No matter how much you twist the rope, leftist thought somehow always ends up in the same place—where everyone and everything must be remade.

With pro-market advocates of any stripe, the situation is exactly the opposite: behind the Goliath-like façade lies the ideology of David. Every major corporation in the world fears one thing above all—the small startup that will come along, disrupt, and destroy them. Because every major corporation was once such a startup and remembers it well. Capitalism ad hoc is destructive to its own beneficiaries and open to the little guys; worse yet—modern capitalism critically depends not on the "big players" but on the "small ones"; without small and medium businesses, not a single "tech giant" could survive—hell, not a single giant of any kind. Read Schumpeter and Baumol—they bring clarity to the mind.

In a world where the market has triumphed, there’s a place for anyone who can offer something new and unique. And sometimes, just something old but reliable. The catch is that this place isn’t always glamorous or prestigious. And the coalition of winners—those who get media attention, publicity, and the chance to bathe in lobbying—is very small. Neither the butcher with his premium beef cuts, nor the garage body-shop mechanic, nor the tech reseller with containers of smartphones, nor the sneakerhead with a bag full of Converse will ever make the cover of Forbes. Well, nobody gives a damn about the proletarian in the grand scheme of world revolution either. The difference is, the tech reseller knows this right away—and can bitch about how he’s forced to profit from selling plebeian Xiaomis instead of taking part in Great Deeds—while the working-class cannon fodder only learns its place after being warmed up, recruited, and packed into yet another mass grave.

So here’s another twist: no matter how much you criticize capitalism for the artificiality of marketing, capitalism ad hoc is inherently unattractive to potrebitelus vulgaris; he will never be the main hero in it, and he knows that from the start. But Marxism’s marketing is absolutely brilliant. At least until the next round of Procrustean shackles for the proletariat, repressions, and genocides—when they can finally stop pretending.

The worst thing one can do in this situation is, of course, to wholeheartedly love Goliath for being Goliath. But many of our fellow citizens have chosen exactly that.

07.01.2025

source: https://t.me/whitekremlin/1135