Alienated State
We are alienated from each other, our social reality, and individual purpose under capitalism. Through the acceptance of the capitalist relations of production we allow ourselves to be exploited by private ownership. Creating an environment in which we have no say in the magnitude of our share of the revenue, although we collectively generate the revenue from which our wages and salaries derive from.
It is in part through our media and entertainment consumption (which helps us stay distracted and artificially content until the next “fix” i.e. sports game, movie etc.) that the state of affairs and social relations under capitalism are maintained. It produces an effect of normalcy, so that a hegemonic ideology in support of capitalism arises; thus a sense of false consciousness is produced in society. Meaning that most of us do not see capitalism for what it truly is, an economic system built on the exploitation of the many by the few and one in which individuals do not have a say in the direction nor in the fruits of their economic activities and the wealth they generate.
It is a system in which the many are divided and turned against each other (be it class, race, religion etc.) so that credence can be given to an ideology of individualism. Thus the actions by private interests and their outcomes are seen as a normal part of society; negating our true nature as social beings. The tragedy is that this ideology is tied to the falsehood that it is liberty and that we are free because of it as some would have us believe. The reality, however, is that we are less free under such conditions. Less free because an open ended system (the free market & private ownership of production in society aka Capitalism) without rules or very minimal rules (regulations) allows a small number of individuals with power (money) to dictate the reality and livelihoods of the many all so that those few individuals can pursue greater profits. Profits which are the stolen surplus value that the many generate through their labor.
That is why there are political ideological forces that want to minimize government and negate its ability to regulate private interests. It is not just any form of government that they target but our democratic political system because it is through a democracy that we the many can attempt to change the conditions and minimize our exploitation (minimum wage, maternity leave, child labor laws etc.) or truly seek to change the system.
The point is we don’t need a small group of individual private owners exploiting us and structuring our society for that purpose. A purpose which has a multitude of negative outcomes and externalities (climate change, poverty etc.) We need to realize that we can organize our economic structure to be in sync with our true nature, that is as a social species built on cooperation. We need to understand that we can organize the future Googles, Ford Motors, Comcasts, and Walmarts of the world not as enterprises run and controlled by a few major share holders, serving their own interests but by all the workers within the enterprise as worker cooperatives. We need a new ideology that promotes such thinking so that future enterprises conceived by individual entrepreneurs are organized as cooperatives instead of privately, otherwise they would only continue the bundle of contradictions that is capitalism and all its negative effects. In the same sense we could say that investment capital should not come from private individuals but collectively from society (as a tax on enterprises perhaps) and distributed through public banks. Effectively removing another point of contention, private investment, that produces a contradiction. One in which enterprises are beholden to distributing a percentage of their revenue as payments to the private investors. Paying back their principal with interest at the expense if necessary of their employees, society, and the environment.
There are many structural changes that we can decide on democratically, however the idea or purpose we should have is to extend democracy from the political system to the economic system. Establishing for the first time in human history a truly democratic society in its political economy. We are halfway there under democratic political systems, we just have to break free from the stupor imposed by the current social-economic conditions. We should aim for that which truly gives each of us freedom, i.e. democracy, and extend it into our economic lives.
*I believe a good place to start from is to research the Mondragon Corporation in Spain for an example of a large worker cooperative.
1) http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/30/the-case-of-mondragon/
