Marx’s theory of alienation: where people come to see life as meaningless and/or having no value. Human beings feel disconnected from each other, they no longer feel like they’re part of the human family. The world they live in no longer appears as a home but an alien landscape that they don’t belong to. In the objective sense, in Marxism, they feel it is not a home while accepting it as a home as a metaphysical fact. To put it simply: People do not know each other, they do not identify with each other.
In Marx’s time, this meant the complete immiseration of the working class to a degree unheard of by the First World. The Victorian workhouses were a horror not matched by anything in the developed world now. Alienation meant hopelessness, a pointlessness that make the strongest of people wither away. Religion, “the opium of the masses”, as Marx put it, was the analgesic that made it possible to live another day. Not a delusion as many claim he meant it. During his time opium served as a medical pain reliever.
Today we see a different manifestation of alienation. We have people succumbing to increasingly degenerate subcultures. (Subcultures are fine, but not this!) Self-awareness has been replaced by self-delusion, a desperate need to be viewed as unique and special in society. It manifests itself in all kinds of narcissistic behaviour. Celebrity culture is made manifest in the everyday person. Special and unique niche identities are evolving every day to give an identity to people who are essentially alienated away from being human – and that’s just the “Left”.
I think it is undoubtedly true that alienation has increased and evolved since the time of Marx. As capitalism has become more deeply developed, the alienation we experience has become increasingly worse. I’d say it’s a direct correlation. In our modern world, we experience it more than anyone in past times has - in a different way. This development is somewhat like what Marx had predicted would happen. The further capitalism develops, the greater the alienation of people will be.
Seeing all this psychological destruction and increasing social toxicity has led me to ask a question: is it possible for alienation to reach a point of no return? A point at which Maxian socialism cannot be achieved through a revolution against capitalism?
That’s what I’m wondering, and I don’t think there is enough Marxist literature or investigation to answer that question. But this is what I’m worried about. The state of the Left has degenerated into opposing camps:
One of Neoliberalism is overly concerned with their individual identity making them feel special – and many of them use it as a way of avoiding culpability for White supremacy or first-world pillage. They focus on making social democratic reforms to placate the public, not to build some real notion of a revolutionary potential. Or supporting imperialist conquest by pink-washing the forces of capital to justify supporting them. A bigger slice of the imperialist pie is what they are after, not revolution. They can only think in terms of themselves, and their immediate material wants. Not the collective of humanity or the building of a better world.
On the other side, we have closeted fascists running around calling everything to do with Western society “degeneracy” or some other neo-Nazi buzzword. All of it is just thinly disguised homophobia they, using a conspiratorial belief, claim is being pushed upon people along with pedophilia by some unnamed liberal elite. Too often, they resort to religious notions of “demons” controlling the events they oppose; an anti-materialist position unworthy of being associated with Marxism. They pander to the Eurasian fascist/capitalism as if it/they were some saviour. Very much like the German population before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
What we’re looking at in the best of circumstances is either a liberal or conservative-flavoured fascism. And like the old European fascism, it will be welcomed with open arms. Meanwhile, the third world will continue to be murdered for the splendour and newly found comfort of either flavoured outcome. No matter what, imperialism wins: US hegemony or Russian/Chinese capital takes over.
Is this a sign of the tipping point? Where opposition to the capitalist system is just two brands of fascism? Any real opposition to the global system (in the first world) is so incredibly small as to be considered negligible. Does this vindicate Third Worldism as being the correct scientific theory? That only the global proletariat can lead the way forward? That the “proletariat” in the first world is bourgeoisiefied to the point of being counter-revolutionary itself?
The typical argument against this question is always insults and accusations of being defeatist, at best. At worst there’s the accusation of being counter-revolutionary or being a state psyop. Ironic coming from two sides that so wholly align with the political and economic interests of capital. It has been nothing short of a fact that no one has been able to make any rational argument against Third Worldism. It is why we (myself and the LLCO) are slandered so deeply, harassed, threatened, and doxed by so-called Marxists. Pig-work is not beneath the egos and intellectual frauds of First Worldism.
Is it possible to pull the first world back from the abyss it is wholly endorsing? I’m of the opinion that it is not, except for one caveat. The total and complete collapse of the first world via any means; but most likely an economic catastrophe.
I say this because the first world in general, to say nothing of the so-called scientific socialists of the first world – are so deeply entrenched in their individualism making them feel special that they’ll fight to the death to protect it. Their ego needs it, their self-worth, their self-identity, and their material living standard depend upon it. This bulwark can only be removed by one thing: a great catastrophe.
Imagine a great economic collapse that has been predicted by Marxists for centuries takes place. Tens of millions in America will die just from the breakdown of the production and supply chain for food. People will be forced once again to rely on each other for survival. Actual cooperation (not the organization of capitalism) will be the only way. Labour will no longer be alienated through a system of commodity production and exchange. We’ll return to what will essentially be a modified form of tribal society. Alienation will correspondingly be broken down, and cease to exist in any meaningful form. Once again, the bonds of humanity will reform. And we’ll have a chance to build the revolution - or rather in a sense - retain it in a high form.
I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that. I hope we haven’t reached a tipping point in alienation - or that a tipping point is even possible. All we do know is that economic and political instability is increasing. Rates of mental illness across the world are increasing. And right now, the so-called Left in the First World isn’t doing anything to help.
I’m not saying, “Follow me.” I’m saying, “Pay attention, things are worse than you want to believe.”
https://www.academia.edu/111591849/Thirld_Worldism_and_Permanent_Revolution
A synthesis with Third-Worldism and Permanent Revolution