Originally published via Armageddon Prose Substack:
Lots of analysts on the right throw the term “communism” around recklessly.
Even I, on occasion, flippantly refer to this or that as “commie” because it’s a fun word, even when it doesn’t necessarily apply.
But this, boys and girls, is about as close to literal communism as we’ve ever seen in American politics, in that Marx envisioned a revolution in which the proletariat (working stiffs) rises up and throws off the shackles of the capitalist bourgeoisie (Jeff Bezos types) in an orgiastic liberatory celebration of humanity.
Via Investopedia (not the best source for economic philosophy, but a decent synopsis nonetheless) (emphasis added):
“Marx thought that the capitalist system contained the seeds of its own destruction. The alienation and exploitation of the proletariat that are fundamental to capitalist relations would inevitably drive the working class to rebel against the bourgeoisie and seize control of the means of production.
This revolution would be led by enlightened leaders, known as “the vanguard of the proletariat,” who understood the class structure of society and would unite the working class by raising awareness and class consciousness.
After the revolution, Marx predicted, private ownership of the means of production would be replaced by collective ownership, first under socialism and then under communism.
In the final stage of human development, social classes and class struggle would no longer exist.”
The problem here is one of turning theory into practice. Marx never illuminated how this process to the final destination of stateless utopia might unfold, just that it should via abstract “consciousness.”
In practice, the mechanism by which the capitalist system is overthrown becomes the state, which, out of its self-interest, prevents the final revolution — the dissolution of the state — from ever manifesting.
Stuck in limbo.
Chaos ensues.
Central planning becomes the economic model.
People starve.
People die.
People write great literature about hell on Earth (see: Gulag Archipelago).
And it all starts seemingly innocently enough with state-run grocery stores.
Via Chicago Sun Times (emphasis added):
“Chicago could fill its “food desert” with a three-store network of city-owned grocery stores for an upfront cost of $26.7 million, a consultant has concluded.
The new 200-page report from HR&A concludes Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to open a city-owned grocery store is “necessary, feasible and implementable.”
Necessary because volatility in the grocery market has led to a wave of consolidations and store closings concentrated in South and West Side neighborhoods.
Feasible because the city need not become a store operator, but instead could act to limit the risk for a private operator.
Implementable because the city’s “significant land ownership, funding tools,” storage and “community engagement capacity” makes it “well-positioned” to provide “support and resources to an established operator.””
Imagine the implications for social control once the state owns the production and distribution of food from start to finish. Or don’t imagine it; just read a history book on, just as one example, the Great Leap Forward.
Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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