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Connecting
the dots
Remember
the “Good Old Days” before Nintendo, when the cutting edge of
gaming technology was a page full of dots and numbers in some comic
or magazine? Starting at 1 a line was drawn sequentially through all
of the numbered dots and gradually a pattern emerged until eventually
we were presented with an elephant or some other familiar creature,
building or wonder of engineering. Sometimes the compilers of these
dot-pictures were pretty clever and by adding background or texture
they could keep you guessing for ages before the brain sorted the
apparently random outline into a recognisable pattern. Most times it
was possible to catch on really quickly and the general response was
an immediate loss of interest and a move on to the next page of dots
and numbers where the pattern would be repeated, over and over.
Understanding
capitalism, our answers to it as Socialists and why it’s so
important for us to spread awareness of Socialism is, I find, a bit
like joining the dots.
The
capitalists want to keep everyone on Join the Dots Book 1; get up –
open the book – pick up pencil – start – get up – open the
book – pick up pencil – you get the picture. The pattern on each
page is obvious, easy to see and unchangeable. Getting a little
bored? Another chocolate, episode of Big Brother or shopping trip for
stuff you don’t need or really want will keep you docile and
pliable. Oh! and don’t forget to keep turning the pages and joining
a few dots, there’s the rent or mortgage to pay, remember?
As
Socialists we’ve moved on from Book 1. We’ve got beyond the
“Well, I know the system’s not perfect, but what else is there?
There’s nothing I can do” stage. Some of us might still be
joining background or texture dots, and we may not have sussed the
complete picture yet, but it’s certainly not that same old, tired
elephant and, in fact, it’s looking more and more like an
albatross.
We
workers in the developed world are still slaves to capital, despite
some outward appearances. The actual chains and leg-irons may have
disappeared but their virtual equivalents are still there in the form
of the need to exchange our labour power for the means of survival
and to meet our responsibilities to our families.
Think
about it. What a clever dot-picture capital has created; in the
beginning the slaves were chained to the galley oars and the masters
beat the drum and wielded the whip. But how to enjoy the fruits of
their labours when every hour was taken up with thumping the drum and
keeping the slaves in line? The answer was simple enough, unchain a
couple of slaves from the oars, give them status, a title (overseer
or manager), and a whip. They would need a set of virtual leg-irons
(do the job right or you’ll end up down there with the slaves
again) of course, but otherwise capital has got itself a very useful
ally and can now retire to the yacht in Cannes secure in the
knowledge that someone else’s labour will pick up the tab for the
Pimms, canapés and roulette chips.
The
ruse is simple and is presently working well enough; if enough of us
are kept reasonably satisfied with our lot and reminded often enough
of the dangers of bucking the system (loss of income, loss of status,
debt, homelessness), if we allow ourselves to be anaesthetised by
capital’s drugs of consumption, trivialisation and obsession with
personalities, then the future is indeed bleak for the majority of
our world.
Moving
beyond Book 1 is not a matter of education or intelligence but is
a matter of awareness. Understanding the big spin-off for capital
from its strategy of divide and conquer, and doing something to
counter the lies and propaganda is what our job is all about.
In the developed world many think they stand above the majority of
humankind, as a foreman or manager, totally failing to realise that
there is a common cause among all workers, whatever we earn.
How
often do we hear the opinion, amplified in the capitalist media, that
“I’ve had to work for everything I have” or “I don’t pay my
taxes to give hand-outs to parasites and illegal immigrants” or
“Bloody foreigners, taking all our jobs”? The list is endless. Us
against Them, except it’s the wrong “Them”. How can we be so
stupid that we eulogise about Bill Gates giving away millions to the
poor and desperate of the world, without a single question being
raised about why the poor and desperate are in that state in such
numbers and about the role played by the likes of Gates and his ilk
in their condition?
This
illusion that we are not in shackles will take some cracking; people
earning a wage or salary can’t see them as the chains of capital.
They feel so free that they actually think that they are
paying taxes for the good of their country when in actuality
wages, taxes, social insurance, etc. are all simply an overhead of
capital, an overhead well worth carrying in order to buy off unrest
and perpetuate the divisions between the workers of the world.
Our
challenge as socialists is to help others move on from Book 1 to Book
2 and beyond; to help people see through the mind-numbing illusions
to the reality of what Capitalism is; what it’s doing to them and
what it’s doing for the capitalists. We need to be bridges for
people, helping them to shake off their conditioning, enabling them
to find out more for themselves. In the process they’ll join up
more dots – and so will we.
ALAN
FENN
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