Reply To: Status of World Socialist Party (US)
There is truth in the aphorism that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity
Alan, just to clarify – I am not at all suggesting we should continue doing things in the same old way as we have always done. Far from it, and I have already suggested a few changes that could be implemented.
However, what I was questioning was the assumption which seems to be implicit in the very aphorism you cite that our fate is entirely in our own hands and that since we continue to do what we have always done and have got nowhere this borders on insanity. But this is not entirely true, is it?
If Joe Bloggs continues to use the same set of numbers for his lottery ticket week after week , year after year you wouldn’t call his actions insane would you? Why? Because there is also a chance that the lottery will generate the numbers that correspond to what he has on his ticket with the outcome that Joe will hit the jackpot and will finally be able to retire to the Bahamas or Clacton-on-sea, perhaps. It would of course be insane for Joe to use the same numbers week after week if it were the case that the lottery generated the same numbers week after week which bore no relation to Joe’s numbers but that’s not the case in reality
It might be stretching matters a little but the same kind of argument could apply to what we are doing. In one sense capitalism generates a predictable outcome. Things haven’t changed much in this deep structural sense. The same old problems seem to re-occur over and over again. But, in another sense, capitalism is the throes of constant change . “All that is solid melts in the air” as the Communist Manifesto said. New technological advances – from machine learning to gene editing; new forms of social interaction and ‘pop culture’; new challenges like climate change and plastic pollution are constantly throwing up new possibilities and pointing to the need for new ways of thinking
We cannot know or predict how all this secular trends might interact in the future. It is at least conceivable that this shifting constellation of factors might re-align themselves and come together in quite novel ways that begin to suddenly make what we are saying appear a lot more relevant and interesting. I dont know if I am deluding myself but I have already noticed a few straws in the wind in the many Facebook forums I frequent. Its a glass ceiling we are running into at the moment but with a few heftier pushes we could break through.
The point that I am making , Alan, is that there is always grounds for hope and that this does not depend entirely on what we do ourselves. There is simply no point in pessimism. It is self defeating and demoralising. That way lies only doom as Private Frazer was wont to point out
We need somehow to combine a belief that things can change with a belief in ourselves to make the changes that will help bring about that change
