Lenin explained that utopianism was defined by its ignoring of material interests, i.e., the real interests of the various social classes. In particular, the anti-social behaviour of our ruling class is not the result of ignorance or misunderstanding but flows from their real social situation as capitalists who live off the exploitation of wage labour and are immersed in a competitive struggle for survival. Today we often encounter utopian thinking, especially in the green movement. On the one hand, this has a progressive aspect in that many people can see that things should be — and could be — so different. For instance, we clearly have the material-technical means to abolish world poverty, to tackle climate change, etc. But on the other hand, there is often no understanding that the capitalist class, which is responsible for the appalling situation our world faces, will fight to the end to preserve its power and privileges and can only be overcome by an even greater force — the organised struggle of the masses for a society that puts peoples needs before profits.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:58:26 +0000
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