Wanted to take a second to make some positive cases for why we believe in Scientific Socialism/Anarchism. We spend a lot of time belittling historically illiterate smug lords (which is awesome) but I think it’s important to take a second to appreciate why these ideas resonate with us so much and why we find these ideas so important that they are worth fighting for online and IRL. I’ll go first;
Demystification: that’s a big thing for me. The imperial core is a place that is full of institutions that, can technically be understood, and yet do not make a whole lot of sense in their function. Health insurance companies are a great example of this. The entire process of acquiring and using insurance in the U.S. is a Kafka-esque beauracratic nightmare. And at every step there are individuals who are happy to help you understand the process, and yet even once you gain the understanding they impart, it all still feels wildly inefficient and punitive. Even to a very young person, it doesn’t make sense. It is Only beneficial In comparison to the monstrous social violence of medically induced poverty. Meaning it only makes sense when you accept that violence as a necessary societal inevitably.
So growing up in the U.S. you are faced all the time with complex and baroque financial institutions and practices that society insists you understand even if doubt persists that what you are understanding doesn’t really make sense. Ultimately when this practice confers practical economic benefit the cognitive dissonance is assuaged and is even completely resolved in some individuals. Credit cards and credit scores are another great example of this.
Understanding Mystification as a Marxist term finally gave me the vocabulary to understand this phenomenon and hence be less bothered by trying to make sense of things that I understand and yet don’t make any sense.
Another big thing: The labor theory of value; perhaps my understanding is too cursory but when I tried reading Capital this part really stuck with me because it is profound even though it seemed rather obvious to me from my lived experience.
Without trying to get out of my depth In philosophical jargon, my understanding of the LTV is that the value of currency is derived from the surplus value generated by the application of labor to raw materials. I know the states ability to enforce the transaction is also key. I welcome any clarification/insight on LTV.
The point I’m trying to make about LTV and why I find it profound and worth Blooming about is that it means that as workers we generate the force that actually changes the world. That force is labor. It’s not money, It’s not Gold, it’s not big ideas from big job titles. It is the people who turn the earth, teach the young, or just sell their labor hours doing any number of things.
It’s easy to be pessimistic in the face of the incredible accumulated political power the west still holds. Yet we should have hope, because the power that money has is only ever borrowed from labor. Under that framework it becomes a struggle to organize enough unalienated labor hours to put towards building something better.
Our labor hours are the most important building block we have towards revolution. That is the real “capital” that reshapes the world. The struggle is to take as many back from your boss as you can, and if you can, invest those hours into something bigger than yourself.
That’s what gets me blooming. Constructive feedback always welcome (would love more insight on LTV)
What makes you feel hopeful about communism/anarchism?
I get and agree with your point about health insurance in the US, but it's such a vastly and purposefully evil construct that it ends up being cartoonish when you start trying to compare it to other "financial institutions" out there. Like, we could just do away with health insurance and have national healthcare, and it wouldn't really disrupt daily life except for the people working in and adjacent to that industry.
The same can't be said for banks, for example. So it's important not to generalize too broadly.
As far as LTV goes, I've been a proponent of that for a relatively long time (in Internet time). But "mainstream" economists are still very much opposed to it. I think because they (purposely?) misinterpret it as a forward looking valuation. In other words, if the value of labor is $X/hr, then LTV says the price will only ever be materials + labor. But they see in the market that prices move by supply and demand. They can't reconcile it.
But LTV should be applied backward. You find the price in the market via supply and demand, then subtract the cost of materials (this should include transport, warehousing, everything not labor). What's left is the "value added."
Most economists want that "value added" to be a magical property inherent to the finished product. But it's not. We know it's not, and not just because magic isn't real. We know it's not because without the labor the added value wouldn't be there. It's both necessary and sufficient to explain the value added.
The other problem obviously is the owners. They pay the economists to maintain the position that value is magical.
As far as leftism... Anarchism probably isn't practical in the short or medium term. Power is too concentrated. And assholes still exist. Democratic, representative government that empowers some armed authorities to protect people from violence will be necessary for a long time with humans as we are. So laws and regulations will be required. Oversight will be required.
In the short term we should pursue more and more socialism in our government. Socialize medicine, food, housing. Make sure the people who do work get the majority of the value created by their labor (determined by the market price of the finished good). This will be best accomplished by strong unions, preferably just as international as the corporations they're bargaining against.
I can see the most extreme leftist paradise as a potential outcome in a few thousand years, but it will take steps to get there.