The New Revolution - CHAPTER 1: THE EVOLUTION OF LIBERALISM

Part 1: Liberal Democracy

Liberal Democracy is a term that is wrought with many connotations to the credit of the Bourgeois economists and philosophers who coined the nomenclature in the first place. Liberalism itself is a terminology that must be understood as a concept of Political Economy and considering its Historical concept.

Liberalism is an economic concept and not a social one. Liberalism must be misunderstood as “being a Liberal about issues” or “progressiveness.” Liberalism has distinct phases in its development. The earliest form is Classical Liberalism of the Adam Smith and Ricardo epoch. Subsequent economic periods including Keynesian forms gave rise to the Liberalism forms of the post-WW2 years until the advent of the Chicago and Vienna school of thought that brought forth the more obscene forms of Liberalism in what we call today as Neoliberalism. In essence, Liberalism is synonymous with Capitalism and its evolution in Economics.

Capitalism as an economic paradigm was a concept that was invented in Europe, the seat of the industrial revolution, after the slow demise of Feudalism. It was a dialectical shift in economics where Labour became free from its bonds from the ruling elite Feudal lords into selling labour in the market instead. This was an important transition as the ability of the worker to control his labour power ensured that Capitalists and not the Aristocracy now wielded economic power. The Aristocracy then faced the inevitable decline in economic supremacy and eventually extinction. This was not the only advantage of Capitalism, Capitalism changed the method of production from the fields to the factory. This was crucial as it ushered in mass urbanisation and the industrial revolution. With the new religion of Capitalism becoming profit, Technology was embraced to further increase profitability, Science was the new religion that ended the vice like grip of the church upon the state. Capitalism in its Classical form however, did all this without actually benefiting the workers and labour. Marx’s works and critique of Capitalism illustrate this vividly. Capitalism further faced problems when it had exhausted its home country’s ability to increase production and consumption. Hence, countries embarked upon the Colonial adventures to new markets for labour and resources, which were for all useful purposes – slave labour.

The advent of Marx, however, had introduced the seeds of discord in European society and WW1 brought about the rumblings of Revolutionary movements to the fore once again in Europe but this time the Revolutions were to bring the masses of the Working Class to the seat of power. This was successfully done in Russia in 1917. WW2 brought about the worst case study in the decay of Capitalism to light with the Nazi regime in Germany. Fascism was the reaction to the collapse in Capitalism in Europe that found its outlet in the Right Wing, reactionary expression. It is to be noted that Fascists used the failings of the Liberal, centrist govt of the Weimar Republic in Germany to come to power as a populist movement that ultimately created the template for Neoliberal thought of the Corporate-Militarised state.

The end of Nazism and Fascism in Europe and especially the role of the USSR in the war prompted Liberal Democracies of Europe to shift their economic gears to Social Democratic forms of Govt where the emphasis became uplifting the working classes and masses out of their erstwhile misery to avoid them going reactionary. This coupled with the Global growth after World War 2 spurred prosperity for many in Liberal Democracies to the point of even covering up the inevitable 10 year failure cycles of Capitalism.  However, the stage was now set for the Cold war between USSR and the USA. It was in essence, the Corporate world of the West that fought every Revolutionary movement in the World and did everything in its power to ensure that Workers would not gain power in Government.

The Capitalist world finally achieved a body blow against Socialist movements with the ultimate success of their efforts in destabilising the USSR and its break up and reversal back to Russia. It was opined by Liberal philosophers that there would be no more revolutions, that history had come to an end, that Liberal Democracy was the only form of Govt that would exist. Liberalism had in this time morphed into the new form of economic thought called Neoliberalism.

Part 2: Neoliberalism and Late stage Capitalism

Neoliberalism is a concept that is used to refer to the economics espoused by the Chicago and Vienna school of Economics, popularised in govt by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, etc. The essential difference between Classical Liberalism and Neoliberalism lies in the fact that where previously Govt was required to stay out of the role of trade and economics, neoliberalism postulated that Govt must in fact take an active role in facilitating profit maximisation by individuals and the state. The macabre writings and intellectual musings of Ayn Rand typify the philosophy of Neoliberals as one where the selfishness, greed, and economic genocide of those less fortunate were considered commandments of the new order. It seemed that the World had forgot about the lessons of why Fascism came to the fore in the first place. But this would not bother many beyond the Left as the world had not yet gone into Neoliberalism’s next project Globalisation.

Globalisation was the peak of Imperialism for the Capitalist world. The expansion of Western hegemony in industry and finance into the Third World. The third world was now tapped into using methods like the Global Trade agreements, embargoes, regime changes to ensure that the Third World markets were opened to American corporations. This was a project of Corporate Colonialism as domestic industries died from a lack of demand and labour now being lapped up by higher paymasters. To this effect, the advent of Global neoliberalism on emerging markets of the third world, especially in South Asia, ensured an attack of unprecedented proportions on the erstwhile Feudal ruling classes that survived Mixed Economy capitalism. The effects of neoliberalism were not confined to the third world as the Western world started seeing jobs and industries moving into these emerging markets. With this, corporations moved tax centres away from their erstwhile homes as well. The Western world was now in a death spiral. To add to this slow burn, myriad financial crashes, most notably the 2008 financial crisis, further highlighted the dangerous nature of neoliberalism for the first world.

It is curious to note that Neoliberalism which provided rich dividends to the Western world during the Thatcherite and Reagan administrations, turned into a nightmare for their working classes, while the working classes of the third world benefitted. However, with the current stage of Neoliberalism, the working classes of both the third and first world are collectively suffering financial ruin, stagnating and regressing wages and standards of living.

The world as we know it today is facing a resurgent fascism much as the Weimar Republic did in Germany. And the question comes back to haunt us…. When is the next Revolution due?

Part 3: Social and political impacts of Liberalism.

As Marx had correctly opined that Society doesn’t exist to further Economy but that Society is itself a result of Economy and method of production, it is important to realise the changing mindsets of humanity through the various epochs of Liberalism.

The end of the Feudal Economic system in Europe was the first in Revolutionary uprisings. Previous economic systems like primitive Communism and Slavery were rarely destroyed by working class uprisings or a slave revolt. The seminal moment of the end of Feudal system was the French Revolution. The three dreaded words to every ruling class hegemon, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, became staples to every democratic constitution from this Revolutionary even. The French Revolution also saw an explosion of Political thought into the mainstream like Anarchism, Syndicalism, Communism, Socialism, Libertarianism, etc. Most of the thought that blossomed in the new atmosphere were of course Leftist forms as they were against the establishment ruling elites and the ruling class. Left didn’t even necessarily mean Marxist or Socialist just yet but rather popular uprising. But the most important point to note was that the working classes and the masses dared to dream of power and they got it as well.

World War 1 was another moment for Europe, which by now was the cradle of political change. Being one of the bloodiest wars the world had seen to that point, the war was epitomised as one where the Working Classes were fighting battles for Kings and Imperialists. It was this realisation and articulation of the nature and purpose of this war that gave Marxists of all persuasions their legs to rise. Lenin had perfectly articulated this in calling for the proletarian masses to stop fighting each other and instead initiate revolutions against their ruling classes instead. The end of this Great War saw the end of many monarchic rules in Europe and the transition to Liberal Democracies. It was at this time that the Russian Revolution took place and the transition from Monarchy to Socialism was affected. This was a daring experiment for humanity and a life or death situation for the ruling classes of every other country, as the once unwashed, labouring masses dared to take political power. It was impudent, insolent and dangerous to the Rich. Despite many attempts of the Liberal Democracies and leftover monarchies of the time to destabilise the Revolutionary Govt, the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics transformed from the backwater of Europe to becoming an industrial superpower. The insolence of the Working Classes led by the Communists didn’t stop there. Communism was now an acceptable form of thought that transcended borders, threatening the rule of the rich bourgeoisie. The people had moved on from daring to dream of freedom to being the ruling class and being better, more efficient rulers that the erstwhile Feudal and capitalist class.

The destruction of World War 2 and the spread of the Working Class ideology led to the next phase of humanity. China, Vietnam, Korea, Eastern Europe, Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, and the World in general was now captivated by the need for change from the old order of erstwhile aristocrats and the bourgeoisie cornering power. Communist movements were now ambitious to the point of militarising to seize power and the world from the 50s to the 70s saw half the world turning Red in various flavors, fascism was discredited and inhuman, blatant Capitalism had been exposed and turned to Social Democracy to survive the onslaught.

However, the end of the War had another effect in another part of the world which over time would cause the end of the working class ideology as the Utopian ideal. In America, by the end of the World War, there was a thriving Communist movement. This movement was already emboldened by the Soviet Revolution and had already questioned the ruling elites there and threatened Revolution. Such was the power of Communists, Unionists and Socialists of the US that Social Security there was born of the threat of popular revolt. But after the War, the mood had changed and with the demise of fascism, the ruling elites returned to their aim of destabilising the Soviet revolution. Communism became a dangerous and violent ideology that was outlawed by the US and many Capitalist dictatorial regimes, intelligence agencies put all kinds of Leftist under watch, leaders were assassinated and in the US witch hunts followed. Any form of Leftism in the US was purged. The US Govt also indulged in imperialist wars in Asia to unsuccessfully stop the spread of Communism. These wars were brutal and never ended till the late 90s. This was the Cold War. It was anti-Soviet but more importantly anti-Communist.

The use of propaganda on the working masses was at its peak that labelled the US Cold Wars against the USSR as that of one of “Freedom against Oppression.” Communist countries that espoused a Proletarian democracy were labelled as dictatorships, regimes painted as murderous – despite the fact that America had already killed more people by this time than Hitler did. Government propaganda on one side, pop culture on the other, and then came the Liberal intellectual onslaught of the post-modernist movement a cultural art movement that was sponsored and nurtured by the Liberal Democratic governments to paint the Intellectualism of the Left as passe and old school, thus poisoning the youth one generation at a time. It is not as if the Communist world did not make its own mistakes during this time as well. Mao’s Great Leap Forward was a botched implementation of a mass industrialisation program, the Pol Pot regime’s excesses, and the revisionist Govt policies of the post-Stalin administrations in the USSR diluted Communism’s strength at its roots. What is perhaps the most successful tactic that Liberalism used is the notion that Capitalism is freedom is democracy narrative. Many of these propaganda pieces are now debunked today and could not survive the passage of time and rigorous rebuttal.

Part 4: The Liberal Manifesto

While much has been written and understood about the manifestos of the Left and Right, there is precious little that can be found as a definitive guide for How to be a Liberal. There is a specific reason for this and that is because of the fact that Liberalism is not an ideology for the Working Classes and masses. This is exactly why Liberalism as a thought process has had to be invented through the machinations of post-modernist authors, anti-communist ideologues and cannibalised from Right Wing novelists and filmmakers.

Liberalism in its essence as an ideology is Capitalism and capitalism can only be practiced by a Capitalist. But this is not to say that there is no part for the Working Classes to play in theatre of Liberalism. The good proletariat in Liberalism are first taught that any movement to the Right or Left are basically indulging in the study of dictatorial and tyrannical regimes. According to Liberalism, Liberal Democracy is the true and only form of democracy that can be practiced. Building upon this, the Liberal proletariat is taught that the fundamental objective in life is wealth and consumption – or consumerism. Consumerism itself is a corollary of classical liberalism that has spewn forth out of Keynesian economic principles when the US was going through a recession and John Maynard Keynes had propagated economic growth by sending money into the population to spur growth further up the food chain.

The next tactic of Liberal thought is to create hierarchies among the working class so that there is no collective and common solidarity that can ever happen. This is the creation of the Middle Class. It is worth noting that until a 70 years ago, there was no class called the Middle Class. There was only the Rich and Labouring masses. The creation of a Middle Class is to extend on the notion of the Marxian Labour Aristocracy – a class that has to sell labour for a wage but its labour is to protect the interest and property of the Rich Capitalist class by attacking the lower echelons of the proletariat. In the modern context, you see this played out as the Manager at work, the CEO, etc who fundamentally work for a wage but only serve the interests of the Board of a company who are the actual owners of business.

In the realm of arts and culture, the methods of Liberal media are myriad. From the use of popular entertainment to portray any Leftism as a being Hippie, Unionism as thuggery, Management as aspirational, and Entrepreneurship as halcyon. Popular arts are also encouraged to pander to human emotions that are as far from an intellectual pursuit as possible. A simple test of this can be check which Pop song talks of an intellectual pursuit instead of being about romance, getting a mate, getting rich or getting drunk.

Inequality is celebrated as merit. This is an extension of the consumerist ideal, where how much you spend defines your worth as a human being. Thus, this means that those who might be of inherited wealth are more celebrated and hold a higher place in society than those who might be more intellectually inclined from the lower income strata. Inequality can also extend into the non-monetary but monetizable talents. Educational inequality is another celebrated aspect in Liberalism with the creation of artificial silos of talent. Take the example of the MBA qualification. Three decades ago, the qualification barely existed and it was created and commodified simply to create an artificial barrier in education and the workplace.

Post-modernism, social justice warriors, identity politics. Post-modernism is a movement that came out of the French universities as a movement as a art movement that attacked the notion of highly utility centric modernism. The thought extended to cinema, literature, etc and the crux of the movement became the active pursuit of hedonism, nihilism, and anti-intellectualism for the sake of it. The focus on individualism over the collective. The advent of the internet has pushed a lot of tertiary leftist movements like women’s liberation and black rights movements into the realm of identity politics. Identity Politics movements are individual movements that essentially ask for Reforms within the liberal establishment to specific identity groups for more equality or parity. On the face of it, identity politics would see to be the more progressive of liberal movements in their nature, but they can never attain true power because they do not challenge power from a collective Class perspective and are usually movements of the more elite sections of society. Feminism is a Liberal movement that was derived from the Women’s liberation movement in Socialism and its aims are thus restricted to more equality rather than absolute takeover of power.

Liberalism doesn’t stop there. It also encourages the members of the working class to support its political stands, even if that stand is fundamentally against the interests of the Working Class itself. A typical example of this is in the propagation of the philosophy that welfare expenditure is a waste and is being lapped up by freeloaders and the undeserving. The projection that any welfare expenditure by the Govt is inefficient and prone to corruption but the same service when done privately is absent of the same ills is another tactic used by the Liberal Ruling Elites to remove the working class from Govt and accessing its benefits. To this end, the most successful propaganda tool of the Liberal Elites and Propagandists has been that Privatisation is good and Govt is bad. It is also on of the foundations of neoliberal economic plans.

Part 5: The Growth of Proto-Fascism and Fascist rule

The disenchantment with Leftist ideologies among the working classes has had a profound effect on the post-Soviet generations that can be grouped under the demographic of Millennials. One of the most stark characteristics of this generation is a Nihilistic tendency towards political thought, a Fatalistic approach towards dealing with the problems of society at large be it inequality, sustainability, or any such issue, and as a result of consuming information from Liberal media, an inability to envision systemic change as a possibility leave alone as an inevitability. In summation, one can say that the sustained effort of Liberalism to crush all Leftism and the working class has ensured that when Liberalism fails, the Right Wing and Fascist ideals are what the working class get inevitably drawn to.

The mechanics of this tendency towards Reactionary sentiment is something that always escapes Liberalists because, as mentioned earlier, Liberalism is not a formative social ideology of the masses. However, the creation of a proto-fascist atmosphere, while it might be the doing of Liberal politics also has its growth stimulus in the absence or inability of the Left movements to stem Reactionary tendency among the proletariat. There can be many reasons for this from an absolute absence of a Leftist movement like in America, to the ideological inability to define primary and secondary contradictions in the material conditions of a certain society like in India, to the inability of the Communist vanguard to militarise and lead the Unions in the face of Fascist attack as was the case in pre-Nazi Germany.

It is very important to therefore understand the difference between proto-fascism and fascism for the Left. Proto-fascism is a distinct state in which the Right Wing has gained enough power and support from a critical mass of the proletariat that it can start to legitimise its ideological narratives. The critical mass giving legitimacy to an abstract idea which might have no logical or empirical grounding is the only basis for Right Wing ideology spreading. A case in point being the hatred of Jews in Nazi Germany or the superiority of the Aryan race. This Nazi narrative would have had no scientific basis and would be based simply on anecdotal, gossip or rumours. These appeal to the baser senses of people to react to a threat and also to make the threat one that might is numerically inferior so that it can be attacked without consequences. This is one of the fundamentals of any fascist or right wing thought. It must make another community or collective the enemy to grow. Where the Left makes an idea and its supporters the class enemy – namely Capitalism and the Bourgeoisie, the Right Wing makes the Jew, the Muslim or the migrant the enemy. It is thus easier for the lumpen to target the physical enemy rather than the ideological one.

Once proto-fascism finds its target, it then clubs its other enemy – the Left – as a supporter of the primary target. This has been done in the past where Jews being part time Bolsheviks was a popular Nazi refrain, in anti-Muslim proto-fascism, Communists are clubbed with Muslims as their protectors. This eliminates two enemies of the Right Wing and the bigger enemy of the Right wing are the Communists because of their common support base and ability to militarise.

The next stage of proto-fascism requires getting greater and greater power and acceptance among the lumpen proletariat and eventually gain political power through any means possible. Once in the seat of power, the objective of the proto-fascists is to remove all legal hurdles and ensure that the Security establishment is firmly under its control. This is important as in the event of a democratic challenge to the authority, the security establishment is necessary to force Governance.

Once the Army is firmly under the control of the Right Wing, there is no further need for a democratic farce and Fascist rule can be implemented. Core industries can then be handed over to the Private sector business houses that can run on slave labour provided by the Govt, imperialist wars and conquest can subsequently follow as well. However, to avoid a revolutionary backlash and longevity during the suspension of democracy, the Fascists will continue the tactic of enforcing Racial or Religious purity, othering another race on and on till it runs out of enemies until finally it reduces the working class to a minority so fractured and miniscule that it cannot revolt and is enslaved. The ultimate aim of fascism is then realised in the re-establishment of a monarchic state or of a dictatorship of the pure blooded.